Hero's Saber
by cabin6writers
Summary: Sean and Lexie. Two children of Athena who decided to write down their demigod adventures. Follow the perilous journey of two siblings and a daughter of Nike as they cross the county and uncover they very thing that could lead to the destruction of everything they will call home (Ignores Apollo and slightly shifts Heroes)
1. I have often dreamed

**Disclaimer: I do not Own PJO or HoO**

 **Hero's Saber**

I know somebody who wrote something a lot like this, he's surprisingly pretty well known for it too. His name is Percy Jackson. If you read it and didn't believe him or you thought it was just fiction then just keep reading, you have a normal life. The first thing about being a Half-Blood is that you always have to be on guard. You can turn a corner and there it is, a monster trying to kill you. So don't say Percy and I didn't warn you.

So before I begin let me introduce myself. My name is Sean Kennedy, I'm in my sophomore year of high school and have light red hair, freckles and grey eyes - the average ginger. I was in band class the day my life changed forever.

My band director was yelling at my section for messing up the trio for the fifth time that day. He had crazy hair that stood up on end and was bald in areas, making him look like a troll doll that had a nasty run in with some scissors. "Do it one more time!" we sighed and lifted out trumpets. We started to play, but the freshman at the end- Lexie Greyson- I think that's her name- came in a measure early throwing the whole band off tempo. "That's it! Everybody except Lexie and Sean out!"

 _What did I do!_ I thought to myself as I put away my horn. We waited until everyone was gone before we approached the director. "You told us to stay?" I asked.

"Yes, you two are a constant problem in my class" he said in a booming voice. He walked towards us quickly. "You two need to be out of my class for good."

Lexie flinched and narrowed her eyes. "Okay sir, we'll just leave then... come on Sean." and she started pushing me towards the door.

"What no! I love this class you can't kick me out I'm one of your best trumpets!" I protested pulling my arm out of her grip and walking back over to our director. "Why are you kicking _me_ out!? I wasn't the one that messed up! It was blondie over there!"I shouted as I pointed in her direction.

Lexie scoffed at me. "I'll have you know-"

"Oh I didn't ask you to leave, I have a different way of getting rid of you" he interrupted. I turned my attention back to my band director just in time to see his body grow twice its original size. His head grew larger and wider, his eyes seemed to slide inward and form a single large eye. "Come here so your deaths are quick and a little less painful!" He lunged for me and I fell on my back to avoid his gigantic hands.

"Now do you want to get out of here!?" Lexie shout at me from the door as she grabbed something out of her jacket and used her other hand to pull me to my feet as my director- or whatever he was- used both his fists to pummel the floor where I had just been. "What are you waiting for!? You trying to get yourself killed? Lets go!"

"What- what the heck was that!?" I screamed as I followed her down the hallway, running for my life. I could hear the band room door being thrown open behind us.

"No time to explain! We have to get out of here!" She shouted back as she made a sharp turn to the left. This was the the first time I noticed what she was holding- it was a sword.

"Where the hell did you get that!?" I said as we rounded another corner in the hallway, most the classes were still in for another few minutes so the hallway was deserted, but I could still hear the creature chasing after us a few rooms away.

"What did I just say! I'll explain later!"" She snapped at me at we came to an intersection in the hallway. "Styx! Which way was it!" She cursed to herself and turned right.

We rounded another corner and there he was. He towered three feet over us and looked rather angry about the door slamming in his face during our escape. "Well I can't just let you escape" he grinned as he stomped towards us.

"Stay back!" Lexie threatened as she pointed her sword at his hardened chest. "I have no problem killing you!" She thrust her blade at the monster.

"Ha!" he boomed. "You half-bloods and your little toothpicks. It won't do you any good. I'll kill you both before you can even say 'holy Hera'." He smiled as he stepped closer to us.

Lexie and I were about four feet from the creature now. She pulled me behind her like she was going to shield me. I must have looked pretty funny, me hiding behind a freshman girl like a scared little boy. "Stay behind me, and don't get in my way" she ordered. I nodded because I didn't know what else to do. The thing that had once been my band director charged and Lexie threw me to the hard floor.

It barreled past us at a speed that would have crushed us if he had ran into me or Lexie. Lexie turned around and jumped over me as the monster crashed into the hallway wall. She sprinted towards it and slashed her sword down its back. It howled as it started to disintegrate. It literally disintegrated like it was made of sand. Soon enough there was nothing left of it but a pile of golden colored sand that Lexie kicked with her foot to spread it.

"Y-you just killed our teacher!" I yelled as she pulled me to my feet.

"First of all _it_ was trying to kill _us_!" she shouted as she put away her sword. "And secondly, that was not a teacher, that was a Cyclops." The bell went off and the hallways were filled with teenagers. "We need to get out of here, there's likely to be more than just one."

This girl had to be crazy - maybe I was going crazy too. "What do you mean _more_!?" I asked as we exited the building and went to the track.

"You don't honestly think that there's only one of them do you?" she asked sarcastically. "I'm here to keep you safe, your dad told us that he feared something was hunting you so I was sent to keep you safe and, if needed, to get you out of here. And the only way I'm going to be able to do that is if you do everything I say with no questions asked!"

"What did he call you back there? Half-Blood?" I asked, still shaking from what I had just seen.

"Gods you ask a lot of questions! Did you not listen to a word I just said!? I'll explain it _later!_ When we're away from here!"

"Just answer the question!"

"Fine! Let's just say I-" she shook her head, "-we aren't like everybody else here. We're different. Got it? Now no more questions!" I looked at her strangely, but didn't respond. She led me over to the metal fence and lifted it so I could get through then followed.

We walked to my house, it wasn't very large, but it was decently sized. Luckily my Dad and stepmother were away at work, and my step-brother Conner was away at school still. "Okay, now that we're not at school. What the hell is going on!?" I screamed, probably a little louder than I should have.

"Haven't you ever wondered who your mother was? Did your dad ever talk about her?" She began.

It's true I had never met my mother, Dad never talked much about her, he just always told me she was smart and could solve any problem.

"You know that weird weather that was across the country over the summer?" She continued

"What does that have to do with anything!? I just saw you kill some creature with a sword."

"It has everything to do with what just happened!" She took me to the window. "There is more than just monsters out there, there are gods too," she continued.

"You aren't saying what I think you're saying are you?" She just nodded and moved her hands motioning for me to continue the thought. "You are saying my mother is one of these gods?"

She nodded and said "My mother is Athena. The Greek gods weren't just myths, they actually exist." She looked out the window "Looks like our ride is here. Grab your stuff, we're going to Long Island."

I also looked out the window and saw the strangest thing so far. There was a white winged horse pulling a wooden chariot sitting in my front lawn. My jaw dropped. "What is that!?" I asked completely stunned at what I was seeing.

"What do you think it is, it's a pegasus, now go get your stuff we're leaving." she ordered as she patted me on the back. "This is just the beginning." She helped me pack my suitcase with some clothes and other stuff I would want to bring.

Soon enough I was standing on my lawn with my suitcase then I remembered what I was doing. "What about my Dad? Won't he wonder where I've gone?" I asked turning back towards the house.

"He's the one who asked for one of us to come get you, he'll know where I took you." she explained. "We have to get out of here before more monsters come to kill us." Her voice sounded urgent. She motioned towards the vacant chariot and said "Your training must begin immediately. Camp Half-Blood is the only safe place for any of us to be."

"Where is it?" I asked as I got in next to her in the chariot.

"Long Island," I opened my mouth speak when she held up her hand, "before you even ask, I know that Long Island is a long way from California, but it's actually not a long flight with the right equipment." She smirked and she flicked the reins of the chariot and we burst into the sky. As we shot into the sky I felt the chariot lurch forward and we shot away at an unbelievable speed.


	2. Of a far off place

**Chapter 2**

"Well, here we are! Home sweet home! Well for me at least, it'll probably take some getting used to for you." announced Lexie as we flew over a forested area. I could see a small strawberry field in a small clearing and as we got closer I started to notice that there was a ring of cabins in a corner of the clearing and more were being constructed.

"This is Camp Half-Blood? It looks more like a farm." I said skeptically. She ignored me so I said "So... there are more people like you?"

"And like you, we're _both_ Half-Bloods don't you get it yet?" She said as if I had said something stupid. She landed the chariot on a small landing strip next to some stables. After we landed she let Pegasus out of its harness and made me help her put away the flying chariot. "Follow me, Chiron will need to show you the orientation film." she ordered.

She led me to a two story house that looked like it belonged in some movie about the Great Dust Bowl. There were a couple of kids sitting in chairs on its deck. They looked at me like a new specimen; I felt like the new kid at school, which in a sense I was. When we entered there was an old man sitting in a wheelchair and a rather plump man wearing a leopard print shirt and looked like he hated every moment in the building. They sat around a ping pong table playing some sort of card game. "Hey Chiron, this is Sean, the boy I was sent to retrieve from California" Lexie said respectfully as she stepped out of the way.

The old man had thinning brown hair and a stubby beard. "Welcome Sean, how was the flight?" he asked as if it was completely normal to be attacked by monsters, told my mother is a god, and be flown across the whole country in just a few seconds. I didn't answer I Just stood there unable to speak. He grinned. "My names Chiron, there is much you must learn. Now come there is a orientation video that you should watch before we take you to the Hermes cabin."

"So I can go now right?" Lexie said from the door.

"No, I want you to stay to show him around, he'll probably want somebody he knows to show him around." I didn't know Lexie very well, we had only talked a couple of times and I had found her to be obnoxious, she was always showing off in class and tended to compete with people.

"Can I come back when it's over? I need to check some plans for Capture the Flag with Malcolm and Annabeth."

"You mean go make out with Austin?" Said a blond guy sitting on the couch that I hadn't noticed.

"No one asked you Will! And Austin's not even here! You of all people should know that seeing as he's your brother." He smiled and returned to looking out the window.

"So how was the video?" Lexie asked as she lead me out the door.

The video was... Interesting, I'm not sure if I believed it at the time. It seemed so far fetched, the Greek gods living in Olympus above the Empire State Building and monsters attacking their children. "I think I've gone crazy..."

"They've changed it since I saw it. What's in it? Does it like explain how demigods come into the world and all of that because that'd be really awkward."

I shook my head. "That would be disgusting, what goes through that mind of yours?"

"A lot of things really, it can get really annoying at times, like this one time in my spanish class when we were practicing new verbs and I zoned out and started saying the Greek equivalents in my head, then the teacher called on me and I answered the question in greek by mistake, and this was when I didn't even know I knew Greek so I was equally as shocked as my classmates."

"You know Greek?"

She nodded, "Yeah you do too; all demigods know it, just some know more than others at first. You just naturally know it, it's one of the things you get regardless of your parentage."

"What do you mean?"

Well all demigods receive gifts or skills from their godly parent, it's something that their exceptionally good at. For example the Demeter kids." She said pointing to the cabin next to us that had a grassy roof and plants everywhere. "Their mom's the goddess of the harvest, so they all have green thumbs and can control plants at will."

"I'm not good with plants, I kill any plant I touch" I said sarcastically, she laughed.

"I didn't think you were. I'm not the best with them either. So anyways... Welcome to Camp Half-Blood making heroes since Ancient Greece." I gave her a confused look, "I know you've already been given a welcome, but I'm obligated to say that."

"Okay then..."

"So as you can see, we currently have a good bit of construction going on. Originally there were only twelve cabins, the ones that you see here;" she said gesturing to them, "each one is for Olympian god, but as of eight months ago in August we started adding cabins for Hades, Iris, Hypnos, Nemesis, Nike, Hebe. Tyche, and Hecate. Once you are claimed you will be staying in the cabin of your parent."

"So am I going to be sleeping outside until then?"

"No you'll be staying here at the Hermes cabin." She said as she walked up to the most normal looking cabin of the bunch. "Keep in mind who Hermes is, I advise you watch your pockets..." She gave me one last pointed look at the brothers before running off to a cabin.

I looked around the cabin, the bunks were all full of bags and the floor had a few sleeping bags covering it, but I could tell there were usually more. There was a T.V. in a corner and somebody was playing Skyrim and somebody next to him laughed as he threw somebody of the top of a mountain.

"Hey" said the boy,that wasn't playing, he looked to be about a year older than me and a bit taller. He nudged the gamer and said "Travis, we got company."

The other boy, who I assumed to be Travis paused his game and turned towards me. "Oh gods, looks like we've got ourselves a leprechaun" he joked. "Grab a sleeping bag from the closet, there should be one in there." he ordered.

I went over to the closet and when I opened it I heard a string snap with a sharp _twang._ Then about a dozen sleeping bags and assorted camping materials -including a rather large frying pan - came clattering out of it and landed on me.

I could hear them laughing. "That one always works, Connor, why don't you go help him put that stuff back in." Then the first boy got up and helped me shove everything except one of the sleeping bags back inside the closet. "Newbies always get pranked some way or another."

"So... umm where will I be sleeping?" I asked as Connor walked back towards whom I assumed was his twin brother because they looked exactly alike.

Travis pointed off in a random direction and said "just find a place on the floor. All the bunks are taken." I looked around for a place that was large enough and set my bag down, but didn't place my suitcase down because of what Lexie had warned me about. I was about to sit down on one of the bunks, but a horn went off.

"Finally!" announced Travis setting down his controller. "I'm starving, let's go eat. Come on new kid I'll take you to the dining pavilion."

I followed Travis and Connor through the camp and into the dining pavilion. There were twelve long wooden tables that each were full of kids except for the last four and there was another table that went along the front of the other tables. I tried to sit down next to Travis and Connor, but all the seats were full so I was forced to sit on an upside down trash can at the end of the table. Now I noticed the food. The table was loaded with food, but nobody was eating. They had filled their plates but refrained from stuffing their faces with the delicious looking foods. So I did the same in attempt to fit in.

"Hello Sean" said a voice behind me. I turned to see what I thought was a man riding a house, but then I took a second look. I noticed that the man had no legs, his torso was where the horses head should go, he was a centaur. Then I noticed it was Chiron, the man that had welcomed me to the camp. "Surprised to see me in this form?" He asked.

I must have looked simply baffled because all I could manage was "umm... uhh, you're a-"

"A Centaur, I know" he interrupted. "May I accompany you to the fire pit for the offering?"

"What offering?"

"Every night we burn offerings of our food to the gods" he explained. "Campers toss half of their plate of food into a large fire as an offering to their parent." All of the campers started getting up every now and then and would walk over to the fire.

I followed Chiron over to the large flaming logs. He nodded towards me. I reached forward with my plate and scraped off some of my mashed potatoes along with one of my biscuits ' _I don't know who you are Mom, but please... tell me'_ I said in my head, half hoping she could hear me.

When I looked up everybody was staring at me. "I did I do it wrong?" I asked awkwardly. They all shook their heads and pointed up above my head. There was an owl sitting using its wings to hover about a meter from my head.. It held a book in its talons. Within a few milliseconds of me noticing it the bird released the _rather_ large book right above me. It landed right on my head. "Oww!" I exclaimed. The book bounced off my head right into my hands after I dropped it, the book was _The Fall of Troy._

"Annabeth come over here please!" called Chiron. A blonde girl ran over from a table of about five people, I noticed Lexie was among them.

"Yes, Chiron?" She stood in front of both of us.

"Please take your new brother to your table."

"Brother?"

"Yes meet Sean Kennedy, your new brother." She looked at me and then back a Chiron.

"The ginger?"

"You got something against gingers!?" I challenged her.

"No it's just we haven't seen too many gingers in our cabin..."

"How many?"

"You... come on I'll introduce you to everyone." She said leading me over to the table. She introduced each one of the kids at the table then had me sit down next to her. Lexie was sitting across from me and had a look of questionable-disbelief. "Lexie, Malcolm, this is Sean."

"I know who he is I'm the one who brought him here! He's the one I told you about!"

"You mean the one who wouldn't stop asking questions?" The boy next to Lexie said.

"Yes that exactly! Now what is he doing over here!?"

"He's apparently our brother."

"Hey Lexie," I said trying to ignore her comment. "Unexpected huh?"

"I'll say I had my drachmas on Nemesis."

"What are drachmas?"

"You see! Non-stop questioning! It's the money of the gods to put it in simple terms."

"Lexie, go easy on the boy, this is all new to him." interrupted Annabeth. She looked towards me. "Sorry about that Sean, she's kind of a smart ass."

"We'll so are you!" Lexie countered.

"I never said I wasn't" grinned Annabeth. "Anyway, we lost quite a few of our siblings during last year's battle. Its good to have another sibling join us.

"You could just say we lost four of our siblings instead of being passive aggressive about it."

"You don't call losing four of our brothers and sisters losing too many!" Malcolm slammed his hands down on the wooden table and abruptly stood up. "Kim died keeping you alive and you insult them by saying that!"

"How in Hades name is that insulting them!?" Lexie shouted getting to her feet as well. "And how dare you say I don't honor them!" She yelled shoving her brother. "You try having one of us die for you and see how you feel afterwards! You try living with the guilt!" Lexie and Malcolm were practically at each other throats.

I didn't know what was going on or what I should do. I just sat there watching my new _siblings_ shout at each other. Luckily Annabeth stopped them before things got worse. "Both of you calm down!" mediated Annabeth forcefully. "Lex, you know Malcolm's still sensitive about what happened." Malcolm rolled his eyes at the use of _sensitive._ "And Malcolm, we all grieve in different ways. You need to calm down and look at this from her point of view." Both of them went to protest, but Annabeth glared at them ,and they both sat back down in their seats. "Good, now Lexie will you take Sean to the cabin. I have some things I need to talk to Malcolm."

Lexie sighed and said "Fine, follow me." She motioned for me to grab my things and to follow her out of the pavilion. Once we were outside she said "I can't believe Malcolm would say that! I went through the same thing he did." I didn't answer, I figured she was trying to vent so I didn't say anything. "Sean, you're lucky. You just got here, you didn't have to deal with the the war or losing your friends and siblings!"

"I'm sorry about that Lexie, I honestly don't know what you want me to say that will help."

"Wasn't expecting you to." She sighed "I guess I'm just letting it out. Come on, lets go. That pack must be heavy."

She led me over to a cabin that had light-blue, stone walls and golden pillars on all four sides. The door had a wooden carving of an owl holding an olive branch in one of its talons and holding itself up with the other. She opened the door to reveal a room with twelve bunks crammed against the far wall. There were desks against all of the other walls, each desk had a stack of poorly piled papers and had a rather generic looking metal lamp on each. The two side walls didn't have windows, Instead there were white boards. Again the white boards were cluttered with plans and diagrams. One of them was a drawing of the camp and there were lines from random positions that led to others, but I didn't take the time to analyze each one specifically.

"So you can have the bunk over there, it used to be Kim's" she paused for a moment to think about her- _our_ deceased sister. "Go put your stuff down next to it, the Apollo kids starting the campfire."

I slid the heavy pack off my back and walked back over to her. "What goes on at this campfire?"

She looked at me oddly, "Have you never been to a summer camp before?"

"I was going to go to one this summer, but … well you see where I landed."

"We pretty much just sing camp songs, the Apollo cabin is in charge of it, and Sean" She waited for me to be looking right at her. "Thanks for listening to me, I needed to let that out."

"What are big brothers for?" I said nicely.

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever, just remember you have a sister that's stronger than you" she grinned punching me in the arm. "Come on or we'll miss the smores."

 **Sean: I want to thank the** _ **second**_ **best sister a man could have, She's a great editor, and an annoying friend.**


	3. Where a great warm Welcome

Apart from almost being killed by my my band director, and being flown across the country in a rickety chariot that was piloted by some random girl- who turned out to be my sister- I'd have to say my first day at camp was pretty good.

The next morning after breakfast Annabeth had Lexie take me to the weapons shed so I could get a weapon. "So, let's see... what kind of weapon would you use?" she asked herself. She looked me over, analyzing every part of me before saying, "Here try this," and holding out a rather large sword to me. I took it hesitantly from her, glanced at it skeptically, and then looked back at her for reassurance. She nodded, "Go ahead, give it swing."

"Okay." I said nervously. I swung the sword figuring the task was a simple enough, but before I even knew what was happening the momentum of the sword overpowered me and the hilt flew out of my hands. I glanced up in time to see the blade fly within an inch of Lexie's head before embedding itself into the wooden wall.

"Uhhh..." she glanced sideways at the sword next to her head, "I'll just put this back then." She yanked the blade out of the wall and put it back into the shed with the other weapons. She turned around to face me with her hands on her hips, "How do you feel about daggers? Or maybe you could join the peace corps and save us both the time."

"Or you can go be a target on the archery range," I retaliated. Before I could even laugh at my own joke I was pinned up against the shed with a dagger against my throat.

I have to admit this is not how I saw my week going. Yet there I was pinned to a wall with a knife a my throat by my little sister- who I didn't know even existed earlier this week. "Now do you want to rephrase what you just said or do you want to put your money where your mouth is?"

I didn't speak until she removed the blade from my throat. "Didn't mean to strike a nerve, I think I'll pass on the dagger."

She smirked at me before sliding the dagger back into the sheath on her belt. "Not exactly my thing either, but they have their uses... Such as dealing with annoying siblings. How about this?" She handed me a sword.

"I don't think this one is the best either..." I insisted after I taking the sword, it still felt slightly awkward in my hand, but it was better than the first one.

"Well we have plenty of other swords, but I can't guarantee a perfect match. So we could continue searching or you could just use this one until we get the time to make you one in the forge."

I took another glance into the shed and decided there were way too many weapons to try out, "I think I'll just stick with this one for the time being..."

"Thank gods," she said throwing the weapons she had started to pull out back into the shed. They landed with a loud clang and knocked down several other weapons in the process. Lexie cringed and turned to me. "I'll clean that up later..."

"Sure you will..."

She rolled her eyes and leaned back into the shed to grab something, "Here," she tossed me sheathe, "I think this one goes to that sword. So now that you've got a weapon, let's teach you how to use it." She smirked and motioned for me to follow her.

As I went to catch up to her I heard her chuckling. "What's so funny?" I asked once I was next to her.

"Oh nothing... this is just going to be a _lot_ of fun."

* * *

She brought me over to an arena where the rest of our siblings already were. The arena was surrounded on one side by a black, metal fence and the other side had stone seats that looked down upon the sandy floored center. I could see Annabeth and Malcolm sparing at the center of the pit. Our other two siblings were sparing in the opposite corner.

"Okay, here's a shield." said Lexie shoving a chunk of metal into my hands.

The shield was a solid piece of rounded wood with a bronze center and had an arm strap on the opposite side. She waited for me to place my arm in the strap before she pulled out her sword and put on her shield.

"Okay, now copy my stance." She ordered. I lifted my sword and pointed it at her, over my shield like she was doing. She shook her head and said "hold it closer to the blade, it'll improve your balance." She released her pose and grabbed my sword forcing me to correct my stance.

"Thats better. Now, knock me over." Did I hear her right? Did she just say to knock her over? I gave her a confused look. "Well what are you waiting for? This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Don't waste it!"

I smiled slightly, "If you insist." I lowered my sword and leaned forward with my shield and swung it at her. I thought my shield was going to strike her, but she rolled out of my way and kicked out my feet. I fell to the ground with a heavy _thud!_

"You didn't think I was just going to stand there did you?" She chuckled. "Try it again."She pulled me back up and braced herself again. This time I watched my opponent. I looked at her knees to see when she was going to move. When I tried again I shoved my shield high towards her upper chest and kicked out with my legs. This time she jumped back avoiding both assaults. "Thats better, but you're going to need more to get me." She smirked.

Now I was put on the defensive. She bashed me with her shield with such fury that all I was able to do to keep from being pummeled was duck behind my shield.

"Okay, okay. White flag, I surrender."She slowly ceased her assault on my shield and retreated a few meters away.

"You shouldn't surrender so easily" she said angrily. "I would have kicked at the person's feet and hoped to knock them off balance. This went on for half an hour. Lexie was unrelenting. She repeatedly pummeled me with her shield. By the end of it I was covered in black and blue bruises.

"Are we done yet?" I pleaded as I held my bruised shield arm.

"No way, we're just getting started, now lift up your blade" she barked. Once I had the sword halfway up she sung her sword towards me. I parried the swing but just barely. "You should be better than this!" she taunted. "Mom would be embarrassed!"

I got angry, I swung my sword in a wide arch. She used her sword's cross guard to deflect the blow and yank it away from me. She continued her slicing motions against my shield. On her final blow the shield snapped. The sword went through the splintered shield and into my arm.

Pain shot up my wounded limb. I yanked the shields velcro strap off my arm and squeezed my arm trying to stop the blood from gushing out.

"Annabeth get a medic!" screamed Lexie. Annabeth ran off to find somebody a few seconds later. Lexie dropped her sword and crossed the small amount of distance between us. She took the strap from my shield and tightened it back around my arm. "You're gonna be fine. It happened to me the first time too, well actually it was my leg" she comforted.

I was forced to sit still with the searing pain until Annabeth came back with one of the Apollo campers. He and Lexie Lifted me onto my feet and helped me get to the Big House.

I was upright on a cot in the infirmary. The Apollo kid was sitting next to me stitching the wound closed. Damn it hurt.

He had sent Lexie to go get something he called nectar. When she came back she was holding a glass of something that looked like apple juice. "I'll be right back, don't let him drink too much of that" he smiled at Lexie before he walked away.

"How you feeling?" asked Lexie as she handed me the glass.

"Like I was pummeled by an entire football team" I groaned. "And stabbed."

She smiled like it was a compliment. "Just drink it, Ginger." She punched me lightly on the arm.

I took a sip from the liquid. Gods it was good. It tasted a lot like Ginger Ale. I immediately started gulping it down as if I hadn't had anything to drink for a week. When I was halfway done with the glass she stopped me.

She placed the glass down on the floor at her feet. "That's enough, you'll combust if you have any more." she warned. "It's called nectar, it's the drink of the gods." I could feel my arm get slightly warm. I felt the skin under my cast tightening around where I had been cut. "It has healing properties to it, but if we drink too much of it we'll burst into flames."

"Wow, that's a little scary..."

She nodded then asked me if i was ready to go. Once I was standing, she followed me out the door. Annabeth had told us they would probably be down at the archery range when we were done.

When we got there none of our siblings were waiting. Lexie pointed to a note that had been left on the bow rack.

 _We ended early, gave everyone the rest of the day off._

 _~Annabeth_

"Well then, there we go" said Lexie happily. "Day off, good because I really didn't want to go to Ancient Greek today." Lexie walked away from the archery range and back towards the cabin. "I have some things I need to finish for tomorrow's capture the flag, go find something to do, see ya at dinner." Then she disappeared down the road.

I wandered around the camp for about an hour. There were kids barely older than eight running around chasing each other with swords, people climbing on a gigantic rock wall that was spilling out large amounts of lava at random points - I thought it all looked very dangerous, I couldn't believe a summer camp like this existed. Then there were slightly more normal things like teens playing basketball or fishing.

I stopped at the volleyball courts and watched a few people playing. One of the girls came over to me after her friends called a break to drink some water. She had dark brown hair that hung down to her shoulders. Her eyes shifted from gold to silver every few moments.

"You wanting to join us?" she asked awkwardly. Then I realised I had been staring.

"Oh.. uhh" I stuttered trying to remember what she had just said. "Sure, but I'm not very good."

She laughed. "It's just a friendly game, you'll do fine." she removed her gray and yellow jacket and placed it against the wall, revealing her orange sports top.

Her friends had started to assemble around the net. She had me follow her over. The girl was actually really good, it was her and me against two of the Hermes campers I remembered from dinner the previous night.

When the game was over we- well, she because I didn't really do anything- had scored more than twenty points, while the other team had barely scored ten. The Hermes campers walked away angrily from getting their rears kicked. We walked over to the stone wall that surrounded the court and sat down on top of it.

"I don't think I ever got your name." I said tiredly.

"Ellie, my mother's Nike." she answered. "I've been here for a three years now and I haven't seen you before, are you the new kid?"

I nodded, "Yeah, name's Sean, Athena claimed me last night."

She smiled, "Then you don't know much that goes on here do you?" I shook my head, I was a little embarrassed to admit that I honestly had no clue what was going on. "Well tomorrow is capture the flag night, I see that you've at least _tried_ to use a sword." She pointed towards my wounded arm.

"Sister's way of saying she cares." I joked.

"Obviously." She stood up and looked back towards me. "Well nice meeting you. Don't let your sister win every time, winning is one of the best feelings in the world..." She trailed off before climbing over the wall and disappeared in a crowd of other kids.

When I returned to the Athena cabin I saw Annabeth and Malcolm huddled around a map of the camp. Amanda, one of my other sisters was talking was talking to Matthew. Lexie was sitting on her bed checking her arrows.

"Oh, hey Sean." Said Annabeth without looking up from the map. "Malcolm found some armor that should fit you, he placed it on your bed." She pointed over to a large pile of bronze and a metal helmet with a small blue plume at the top. "Try it on and see if it fits." She ordered.

I walked over to my bed and started attempting to put on the armor. After about three minutes of fiddling with the straps I was able to get the chestplate on. The bracers that covered my forearms were a little harder to attach but finally I was able to get all of the set on.

Annabeth looked at my weirdly, "You do know you put the chestplate on backwards right?"

Ammanda and Mathew snickered a few feet away. I looked down and sure enough she was right.

"Okay, well as long as it fits, you can take it off. Go place the armor in your trunk. It should be under your bed." Then she went back to figuring out a plan for capture the flag.

I pulled the heavy trunk out from under the bunk. When I flung the lid up I noticed that there was already stuff inside it. There were two daggers and assorted clothes. Lexie looked over at me. "Is this stuff Kim's?" I asked.

She nodded and sat down next to me on my bed. "I guess we forgot to clean out her stuff..." She leaned over and grabbed one of the small blades. She twirled it in its sheathe. "Her dad will probably want her belongings." She closed the trunk without placing the dagger back in. "You don't mind not having a trunk for another day do you?" I shrugged and she said "thanks" but she didn't stop looking at it.

"You were really close to her huh?" I asked placing my hand on her shoulder.

Again she nodded. "Other than Malcolm, she was my best friend. I was able to talk to her about anything." She smiled as she looked at the small blade in her hands. She seemed to be remembering something from her past that must have involved her and KIm.

"Want me to leave you alone?" I asked. She nodded and I stood up leaving my sister to her memories.


	4. Would be waiting for me

We were all standing below what Annabeth had called Zeus's Fist. Lexie and Malcolm were next to me along with Matthew and Amanda. We were all clad in armor. Our allied cabins were around us as well. Annabeth had been able to talk Poseidon, Hephaestus, Demeter, and the Hermes cabins into allying with us. We only had two of the minor god cabins allied with us though, the Tyche and Nike cabins. We were at a great disadvantage when it came to numbers.

I saw Ellie standing with two other kids, I assumed them to be her brothers. I waved to her and she smiled, her brothers both rolled their eyes.

"Okay, team, the Ares cabin has been preparing for a week to win this!" Annabeth yelled from the top of the rock where she stood next to a tall boy with messy black hair. "We're going to leave them disappointed." She looked over at the Hephaestus campers. "Go set gas traps by the river, its the quickest way here." They nodded and ran off carrying their large packs of mettle and gas cylinders. Then she ordered the Hermes campers to split up, half of them would go with her and some boy named Percy while the other half stayed behind to protect the flag. "Demeter campers, you are going to be on patrol squad, if you see them, I want you to slow them down enough for us to get the flag and come back." They all nodded but didn't move. She didn't give orders to the minor god kids, they must have already known what to do.

Malcolm stopped me and Lexie from following the rest of our siblings that were part of the Assault squads. "You two are going to stay back and make sure everything goes well here." he ordered.

"Why do _I_ have to stay, I know what I'm doing. He's the newbie!" Lexie argued pointing at me.

"Because, if they get past us we need somebody with some actual brains to stay back here." Retaliated Malcolm. "Get to your positions, the game's about to blow." then he walked away from us and towards Annabeth.

Lexie kicked the dirt angrily as we walked into the bushes to set our ambush. "Stupid Malcolm... Doesn't think I can handle myself. This is all because of what happened to Kim." She kicked a rock into a bush and I heard one of the campers scream obscenities from inside the bush. "Whatever, lets just get this over with." Me and her ducked into one of the thick bushes that surrounded our flag.

My mind started to drift during the short amount of time we were there. I could hear two of the Hermes campers talking a few feet over. "You hear that Apollo guy still hasn't come back?" Said one of them.

Lexie pushed me over so she could hear better. "That's a little weird, usually Austin is careful to avoid being caught, I wonder what's taking him so long." Lexie froze immediately. _Austin... Austin, where had I heard that name before?_

Everyone was silent as four kids wearing helmets with bright red plumes approached. The lead one was a tall girl whose long hair was cut in random places and appeared to have been cut by a hedge trimmer.

"Clarisse, this has to be a trap." A boy next to her said. He looked to be about half her size. He looked around but didn't appear to spot us.

"That's obvious Mark!" She threw her spear into the bush with the two Hermes campers. They bolted out of the bush to avoid being skewered by the spear. "Well, thats two of them."

Lexie whistled softly and all the Hermes campers along with me, my sister and the Nike campers lept out of our cover and charged towards them. We could have easily taken just the four of them, but after the first ten Hermes campers reached Clarisse and the other three boys another ten came out from behind where we had all been hiding.

Eventually Lexie and I were back to back trying to fend off two of the Ares campers - and I say Ares because these guys looked like they were going to tear my head off. I was obviously losing my fight, the guy was just a better swordsman than I was.

He stomped down on my ankle and I clattered to the ground leaving Lexie's backside exposed. He stepped over me and grabbed Lexie by the arms and threw her on top of me.

"Your elbow is in my face!" I yelled. She just used her elbow to roll back onto her feet. The Ares boys kept on pressing us, waiting for us to make a mistake. We kept on fighting as hard as we could.

Now before I continue I just want to say, I don't remember exactly what happened next. All I know is that somehow ended up hanging in a tree. I must have been up there for about two hours when I finally heard a voice below me.

"Whatcha up to?" I looked down to see Lexie smirking up at me.

"Oh... Just hanging around." I groaned. I had spent the past hour thinking of that one. "Will you help me get down." Both of my legs were caught between the tree's branches.

"Sure, but first I've gotta ask. How did you manage to get stuck nearly five feet off the ground in a tree?" She paced the ground around me, grinning menacingly.

"Just get me down." I complained. "I'm starting to get a headache"

She laughed, "Okay, okay." She reached up to grab my arms, "On three okay? One-"

"NO! NO! NO!" I tried to stop her.

"Two." She said grinning evilly.

"NO, wait!"

"Three!" She pulled down on my arms as hard as she could, she was stronger than she looked. I could hear The tree limb starting to crack.

"Well crap." I told myself as I went plummeting face first to the ground. My face landed right in a large pile of mud. "God damn it Lex!"

"Hope you weren't too lonely up there. Did the tree nymphs keep you company?"

I glared at her angrily. "Did we at least win?" I said as I spat the mud out of my mouth.

"No so expect an angry speech from Annabeth tonight. And a lot of pre-planning for next week's game." She handed me my sword that had fallen on the ground while I was hanging from the tree. "Oh and you've got something right there." She smirked gesturing to my entire face.

Again I glared at her, but I ignored the comment. "Ahh great, she basically forced the plan down my throat this morning during Greek!"

"Be grateful that you don't have to be in the process of planning yet."

"Think I'd like that better, atleast then I can have input on the plan."

She passed me a towel the had been holding and told me to wipe the mud off before we went into the cabin.

"Well duh all Athena kids do- though I still have my doubts on you being one- it can just get a little... hectic at times. I think Annabeth's general rule is that you have to participate in two or three games before you can help with the planning, she wants you to at least know the basics before she lets you start planning."

"How many games do you think I'm going to have to participate in before I can help?"

"I'd personally say around a hundred, realistically though I'd say three maybe four because of how poorly you performed this time. Thanks for that by the way." She said sarcastically, while narrowing her eyes at me.

"Glad I could be your pillow." I answered. "I've only been here three days, what do you expect!" We were where now at the steps to the Athena cabin, I could hear the sounds of trunks slamming shut.

"I expect you not to trip and leave my back open." She answered. I was going to respond, but she walked into the cabin effectively ending the conversation. "Hey guys look who I found getting familiar with the forestry."

They all gave her a questioning look. "He was stuck in a tree." She explained. They all just rolled their eyes and continued putting away their equipment.

"I cleaned out your trunk Sean." Annabeth said as she slammed her trunk closed and slid it back under her bed.

"Thanks Annabeth, what happened out there?" My sibling all shook their heads frantically trying to warn me. I'd made a tactical error asking that question.

"It all went to Hades when the Ares campers ambushed our defences, we weren't expecting that many of them to be on the offensive team. Our defence didn't stand a chance. Which is why next week we need to ensure that we-" She stopped when she heard a knock on the door. It was the guy Annabeth was standing next to on Zeus' Fist.

"Um sorry to interrupt your post-game speech Annabeth-"

"No it's fine! Thank you!" One of my siblings called from behind me, Annabeth turned and glared in the direction of the voice and then turned back to the boy.

"It's fine Percy, is everything okay?"

"Actually you and Malcolm need to come to the Big House; Chiron called an emergency counselors' meeting."

"Oh okay," she turned to look at Malcolm and motioned for him to follow. She looked around the room again and stopped at Lexie, "You know when curfew is right?"

"Duh."

Annabeth rolled her eyes, but I could see her smiling slightly. "Just make sure everyone is in bed by then if we aren't back by then." Lexie just nodded and with that Annabeth left with Malcolm and the guy named Percy.

We were all silent, Lexie went over to her bunk and started stripping off her armor. After several minutes everyone else was sitting in their bunks reading something, while I was getting my remaining armor off still.

"You know, Annabeth forgot to mention the fact that the two leaders of our offensive team snuck off sometime during the game." I looked over to see that it was Amanda who spoke.

"Oh I know!" Lexie said sitting up and closing her book, she got up and sat next to Amanda. "I knew as soon as she put him on offensive that something was up. She knows he's best on border patrol, it's his natural element for gods sake!"

I went over to stand by Matthew's bunk and gave him a questioning look, he just shrugged his shoulders. "Girls." He said before returning to his book.

I looked over at my two sisters, "Wait so Annabeth snuck off during the game?"

They both looked up at me. "Oh that's right you don't know any of this yet." Amanda said, she gestured for me to sit on the floor in front of her bed. "So Annabeth snuck off with her boyfriend for some quality time together."

"So in other words she and Percy snuck off to go make out in the woods." Lexie answered.

"Don't act like you and Austin don't do that ever." Amanda said giving Lexie a slight shove.

Lexie just shrugged, though her cheeks were slightly pink, "What can I say it's the perfect opportunity, and you know the rules: _boys and girls can't be alone in the same room._ And _I_ am not a rule breaker." She said innocently.

"You are so full of it." Amanda said shoving her pillow in Lexie's face.

Lexie shoved the pillow back and laughed, "Okay, yes I am full of it, but you'll understand one day and I will tease you to no end when it happens."

"Ahem," I coughed trying to get their attention again, "As entertaining as this is," I said gesturing to the two of them, "Who exactly is Annabeth's boyfriend?"

"Percy... the son of Poseidon, hero of Olympus, the prophecy child..." I shook my head showing I had know idea who that was, "You just saw him a few minutes ago!"

"The guy with the messy black hair?" They both nodded their heads slowly and gave me weird looks. "What does she see in _him!?_ "

They both turned to look at each other simultaneously and rolled their eyes, before saying "Boys..."

I sighed and got up as I walked past Matthew's bed, without even looking up from his book, "I tried to tell you."


	5. Where the crowds would cheer

I was half asleep when Annabeth and Malcolm came back. I hear them standing outside talking. "What are we going to tell Lexie?" Malcolm said in a muffled voice.

"I don't know Mal, we'll have to tell her in the morning. She thinks he's still coming back." Said Annabeth quietly. "Chiron said that he was sent to scout out mount Tamalpais right?" Malcolm didn't answer as far as I knew. "Lets go inside, we'll have to tell her in the morning."

Before they entered the cabin I rolled on my back and attempted to make it look like I was asleep. I could hear Malcolm climbing the small ladder to his bed while Annabeth got ready for bed. "Night Malcolm." She spoke before rolling over. "Oh and Sean, go to sleep."

"Damn it." I cursed silently as I rolled on my side and went to sleep.

Annabeth had Lexie speak with her privately the next morning. When they came back she seemed a little off and she looked like she had been crying. She sat between me and Malcolm during breakfast.

"Lex, is everything okay?" I asked. Annabeth shook her head at me. Great, another bad idea. Maybe I should just not talk. Lexie just shrugged and looked at her food, moving it around with her fork but never eating it. _Screw it._ "If something's wrong Lexie, tell me."

She stood up from her seat and ran out of the dining pavilion crying. _Yep, just can't win._ "I should go after her huh?"

"No, stay around, she needs some space. She's going through alot right now." Malcolm ordered.

I sighed. "I guess you're right." I looked over at Annabeth. "What did you tell her?"

"It's kind of complicated." She paused. "You heard about last year's battle against Kronos?" I nodded. "Well, her boyfriend and a few other campers were sent to check the situation with Mount Tamalpais, it was the Titan headquarters during the war." she continued. "But when the campers came back her boyfriend was one of the ones that didn't come back."

"Do you know what happened to him and the others?" I asked.

"More or less." She obviously wasn't going to tell me so I looked to Malcolm and he didn't say anything. "Sorry, but I can't tell you, Chiron's orders."

"Is anybody looking for him?"

She nodded, but didn't say who. "Why don't you go down to the archery range, we'll all meet you down there." I rolled my eyes, but did as she said.

I approached the archery range. It had a white wooden fence around it and it was pointed towards the ocean. There were already a few kids there and they were busy shooting arrows at the straw targets at the other side of the range. I took one of the bows off the the rack and walked over to one of the targets.

"Hey!" someone shouted from the range. It was Ellie. "What you doing around here?" She asked cheerfully.

"Hey Ellie, you training with us today?" I asked notched one of the arrows. "I was banished here by Annabeth." I joked before letting my arrow fly and hitting the edge of the target.

"You suck. No wonder she sent you here." She laughed. "And yes, so lets see who's better with a bow." She pulled back an arrow and launched it at the target. It hit dead center. "Beat that Ginger."

I rolled my eyes. "Shut up Sneakers."

"Don't ever say that again. It's not my fault that a shoe company is named after my mother." she said, slightly irritated.

"Well its not my fault I'm a ginger."

"Just go." She said impatiently.

I notched a second arrow. This time I took my time, aiming more to the left because of the wind. Once I was confident that I would at least hit the target I released the arrow. It struck a lot closer to the center - not that it needed much improvement. "Well, I'm not going to be the next Top Shot, but thats better."

"I think you still suck, you should try this." She placed her hands around mine and changed my positioning. "Now, hold the arrow like this." Ellie instructed moving my fingers around the arrow's nock - its the back of the arrow. "Okay, now fire it." I brought the arrow back again, aimed to the right this time and released the arrow from my grasp. It struck a centimeter from the center dot. "Well, I think I win this." she smirked.

"Maybe I'm just letting the pretty girl win." I smiled.

She grinned. "Keep telling yourself that. It's cute." Then she grabbed her bow and left to join her brothers.

I stayed there for a few more minutes shooting the target. I didn't improve much, but atleast I was hitting the target. Lexie was the first of my siblings to arrive. Her eyes were a bright red and she appeared to have been crying. She stood next to me, but didn't speak.

"Hey Lex."

"Hi." She mumbled.

"I'm sorry for what I asked this morning, I know it's hard for you to talk about." I apologized.

She sighed, "It's fine, I just really don't feel like talking about it right now."

"It's fine, take your time. Lets see how good you are with a bow." I said, holding a bow out to her, hoping to get her mind off her missing boyfriend.

She smiled slightly, but pushed the bow away, "No thanks I have my own." She took a darker colored bow off her back and pulled an arrow out of her jacket. "Prepare to be amazed." She smirked and notched the shaft. She took a second to aim then released the arrow. It struck dead center, better than Ellie had done. She grinned happily.

"Well, you put me to shame."

"I usually do. But ten drachma's says I've been doing this a whole lot longer than you."

"Sorry, fresh out." I said placing my bow on the ground.

"I would imagine so... Anyways I've been doing archery since before I can remember. My dad got me hooked on it."

"I haven't really used a bow, my father took me hunting, but we used rifles." I watched her fire a second arrow. Now all of our siblings were here. Malcolm and Annabeth were eyeing Lexie, probably to make sure she was okay.

"You missed out." She grinned launching a third arrow. "It's a great way to spend your time, me and..." she stopped again. She looked down at her bow. "Austin gave this to me. He was a great shot, a lot better than I am, I hope he's okay."

"I'm sure he is, he's probably just late." I promised.

"I'm going back to the cabin, there's some stuff I need to go take care of. See you later." She threw her bow back on her shoulder, pulled her arrows out of the target and left the range.

I practiced a little bit longer, now I was consistently hitting the target, but I wasn't as good of a shot as my sister - or anyone else really. Annabeth said that we all had some free time, so I placed my bow back on the rack along with my arrows.

Ellie followed me away from the range. "Hey Sean." Said stopping me as I walked towards my cabin. "What's wrong with your sister? She looked like she had been crying, that's why I left."

"She's going through a lot." I answered. "Look, I really don't want to talk about it, I feel really sorry for her. I can't imagine losing someone important to me."

"That's okay. Why don't you come with me, we have a chess board back at my cabin." She asked.

Sure." I said as I followed her towards her cabin.

The Nike cabin was a bright golden color. A large, golden Laurel hung over the doorway of the cabin, I followed her into the cabin where her brothers' were playing a game of Risk. The interior of the cabin was made of dark wood. The first thing I noticed was the giant TV screen on the wall displaying multiple sporting events, which I assumed were going on around the world at that very moment. The next most noticeable feature was the large trophy case sitting in a corner, displaying multiple trophies and medals- more than my school had had. I walked over to admire all of them.

"Wow, that's a lot of trophies."

Ellie walked up next to me and smiled, "Yeah some of these are from major sporting events, we have several olympic medals as well. But there's more than just awards here, we have a few autographed things it think there's a baseball signed by Babe Ruth somewhere in here." She said pointing to several of them. "But the most prized of all of this is this." She gestured to an extremely old looking helmet.

"Where have I seen that before?" I asked myself, "Isn't this thing like famous."

"Yeah you could say that," she laughed, "This is the helmet of Miltiades, a renowned Olympic chariot-racer. Maybe you've heard of him?"

"Isn't this supposed to be in a museum!?"

"There is one, but that doesn't mean it's the real deal." She smirked and gestured me to follow her.

I followed her over to a chess table that was on the on the opposite side of the cabin. The pieces where silver and gold. Elle chose to sit on the golden side of the table, so I sat down facing her on the silver side. "Ladies first." I smiled.

"Okay." She moved her pawn that stood in front of her king forward two spaces. "You do know that you should never give your opponent the first move."

I rolled my eyes and moved my piece. "Or you can let your enemy go first to analyze their strategy." I grinned planning my next move.

She paused for a moment watching my piece, thinking about my possible plans. Her hands hovered over her knight. "Different viewpoints, allows different strategies." She placed her knight a few spaces from my pawn. "How have you liked your first few day's at camp?"

"It's been a little strange. I feel like I've gone crazy, but other than that- fun."

We played a few turns before she spoke. "Lucky you, when I got here last year we were preparing for war..." She knocked over my bishop and placed me in check, we were both down to only a few pieces and it was getting tense. " Also I had to stay in the Hermes cabin, you wouldn't believe the smell that would come out of that cabin. I think the Stoll's had a few too many fart bombs in their back packs."

I laughed a little bit. "So you didn't enjoy camp?" I asked before moving my king away from check.

"Damn!" She cursed. "That's not what I'm saying. It provided a challenge, and I sought to beat that challenge." Now she was the one protecting her King, I had used my last castle to force her to move her king.

"So this is all just for competition to you? Camp I mean." I asked, slightly confused by her statement.

"No, not at all." She answered. "I understand it's meant to protect me and train me so I can stay alive, but the competition is what makes me strive to be the best and I want to be the very best."

"Like no one ever was before?" We both laughed. Then a horn blew. "Looks like we'll have to call it a draw."

"More like I win. Checkmate." She moved her last pawn and she was right, I had lost. "Good game, you were almost a challenge." She grinned.

I punched her playfully in the arm, "I'll figure out how you did that later, Lets go." 


	6. When they see my face

Despite the amazing day I had had, that night I had the strangest dream.

 _The first sight I was greeted to was a few kids being led forcefully down a street and into a large stone building._

" _I told you this was going to happen! We need to act now!" I turned towards the voice to see that I was standing in next to three people all wearing togas. The two that were closest to me, a brunette girl and blond boy, wore golden chest plates and had dark purple capes hanging off their backs. They were both glaring at the third person a skinny, blond boy with a belt that had stuffed animals hanging off of it._

 _The blond boy in the armor answered. "We don't know they are Greeks, they could just be half-bloods that have managed to survive without getting here, and even if they are-"_

 _The boy with the stuffed animals on his belt interrupted him. "Can't you see it!" He pointed._

" _No. Please Octavian reveal to us what no one, but you can see." Said the girl sarcastically. "You've been crying wolf for the past year, what 'proof' do you have this time?" She used air quotes around proof._

" _Look at this sword." He motioned for one of the people escorting the prisoners to walk over to him. The guard handed him a bronze sword. "This is NOT imperial gold, I have no idea what kind of metal it is."_

 _The other boy rolled his eyes and said. "Octavian, it's Celestial bronze, we have a few in the armory, all this does is suggest that they're thieves, not Greeks." He took the sword from him and passed it to the girl._

" _I don't have time for this." The girl turned away from the boys. "Jason will you meet me in the forum in an hour, we must discuss something." She left the boys behind her._

 _Jason nodded. "Meet you there." He turned back to Octavian. "Honestly Octavian, you need to get out more. You are just spewing crazy, half-baked ideas at this point." He also turned and walked away._

" _You're making a mistake! We need to act before it's too late, all we're doing is giving them more time to prepare to attack us!"_

" _What I said is final Octavian. Reyna and I will not start a war against an enemy that no one, but you thinks still exists." The boy named Jason barked before walking off in the direction the girl went._

 _Octavian stomped his foot before storming off in the opposite direction. "Fine. If they don't do something about it then I will"_

I woke up quickly. That was weird, I usually slept like a log. The dream seemed foggy now, I only could remember fragments of it. _Better not to tell anyone, they might think I'm crazy._ I thought as I looked around the cabin.

The lights were off, but I could hear shuffling on the other side of the room. I could see a shape pulling a backpack over it's shoulder. I grabbed my sword from the floor below me and crept over to the shape. "What are you doing!?" I said grabbing the shape's shoulder.

The shape turned towards me. It was Lexie. "Shhh! You'll wake Annabeth!" she whispered angrily.

"Where are you going?" I asked putting my sword down on a desk.

She pulled her jacket's hood up over her head. "I'm going to find Austin and you can't tell Annabeth you saw me leave!" She threw her bow over her shoulder and grabbed a handful of arrows and slid them in her jacket's Pocket.

"Are you crazy!"

"No. I know what I'm doing, I'm going to take one of the Pegasi and take it all the way to San Francisco. Austin told me where he was going before he left camp."

"You'll need somebody who knows the area." I said grabbing my backpack and throwing a pair of clothes inside of it. "I'm going with you."

"No you aren't. What use could _you_ possibly be." She ordered pushing me away from my trunk. "Stay here where it's safe."

"Lexie, I'm not going to let you go alone." I demanded. "Now either I come along with you or I wake Annabeth and we all talk about this." Thinking back, I should have, maybe some things might have been different.

She glared at me. "I hate you sometimes... You'd better not slow me down. I don't take 'I'm a rookie' as an excuse."

"Lets just hurry up and get going before anybody wakes up... I can't believe I'm doing this." I slung my backpack over my shoulders and followed my sister out the door.

" _I_ would have already been gone, by now, so _you_ hurry up." Lexie demanded as we passed by the Nike cabin. She paused as she noticed somebody sitting on the steps to a cabin. " Who's there!" she demanded.

"Sneaking out?" Asked a familiar voice. "I knew you would, I'm all packed. Figured it'd be a challenge, sounds fun." Then Ellie stepped out of the doorway.

"No. I'm not taking anyone else. So sorry, but I've got to be going now. Bye, don't wait up." She said sarcastically as she walked away from her.

I stopped her. "Lex, I think we'll need all the help we can get." I warned. Ellie eyed us from the steps probably trying to figure out a way to change her mind.

"Well I didn't want any help in the first place!" Snapped Lexie.

"Well, you have no choice in me coming, and I want her to come."

Ellie walked over to us. "You should probably stop talking now Sean." She grinned. "You aren't helping your case. I want to come because I want the challenge and because I want to help a friend."

"So you're an adrenaline junkie..." Lexie mumbled, "Just perfect! Look why don't you two go flirt by Zeus' Fist and we'll all forget this ever happened! Okay good! See ya!"

"Quit trying to talk us out of coming with, you're going to need help. I was at the meeting when they talked about your boyfriend going missing so if you want to find him, you are going to need my help." Offered Ellie.

"You're the Nike councilor!?" I asked, a little surprised by the new information.

"I'm the oldest of my brothers and I've been around the longest, so yeah. I am." She bragged.

"Why are you both so insistent on coming with me?"

"Because we want to help, now can I come or not?" Ellie grinned as she adjusted her backpack. "Anyway, you are going to need my help keeping him from getting killed." She slapped my back, making me stumble forward.

"Don't tell him, but I was planning on ditching him at the closest gas station."

"Well now you won't have the chance, can I come or not... You are going to need my information."

Lexie narrowed her eyes at her as if examining how useful she'd be. "Fine. But if either of you slow me down I swear on the River Styx I will ditch you the first chance I get."

"Good, now then." I said cheerfully to break the tension. "Shall we go?"

"Shut up." Lexie said before walking off towards the stables. We both shrugged and took off after her.

"Sean _please_ tell me you know how to ride a Pegasus." Lexie said as she threw a saddle over one of the flying horses.

"Umm..."I stuttered. "About that... Annabeth was-"

"Save it! You better hope Ellie will let you ride with her because I sure as Hades ain't letting you ride with me."

"He can ride with me, I'm fine with it, and this way we don't take half of the camp's pegasi." Ellie offered me her hand and pulled me up behind her. "Comfortable back there?" I nodded. "Okay, we're good, let's get this mobile feast on the road."

Lexie nodded and she and her Pegasus took off in the night. We were about fifty feet in the air when I realized what was going on. "Ahh!" I screamed tightening my grip on Ellie. "Note to self, don't look down!" I yelled over the wind.

"You'll get used to it, I remember I almost fell my first time." The daughter of Nike in front of me mumbled. "Or did I fall? It was all a blur." That didn't really help my confidence. "You'll be fine, just hold on." She chuckled.

"Thanks!" I said sarcastically. "If I fall, I'm taking you with me!" I joked, trying to not focus on the ground below me.

We flew until the sun was on the horizon behind us. Ellie sped up our pegasus to catch up to Lexie. Once we were flying along side her she shouted "We need to let the Pegasi rest, they can't keep up this speed for much longer!" The wind muffled her voice, but I think Lexie heard her because she nodded.

We could see the Washington Monument now, which meant we were nearing Washington D.C. Lexie pointed her winged horse towards the grassy area in front of the Smithsonian.

We all climbed off our Pegasi. "This is bad how did we end up in D.C! That's means we've been heading south this whole time!"Lexie complained as she took her saddlebags off the pegasus.

"Thank you!" Lexie said snatching the money out of Ellie's hand.

"No, I hold on to the money, it will keep you from disappearing." Said Ellie yanking the money back out of Lexie's hand and shoving it back in her pocket.

"No, I told you I'll ditch you _if_ you slow me down, so just don't do that and we won't have a problem. Plus I didn't have to let you come and I'm the only one that's ever been here before so I know where everything is...more or less."

"Call it insurance, my stolen money, I hold onto it." Ellie said, "Something I learned from my time in the Hermes cabin, never give something to someone who doesn't want you around." She grinned.

"You got that part right." Lexie smirked.

"So where are we going to eat?"

"What's your preference?"

"Somewhere with eggs, I could go for an omelet." I offered. "Maybe some bacon."

"Do you have the money? No. Ellie where would _you_ like to eat."

"I agree with Ginger, I could go for some bacon right now."

"Next thing I know you'll be teaming up against me... but right now that is not a problem because I could use some waffles and hashbrowns. To Waffle House!"

"Never been there, I hope they have orange juice."said Ellie. We followed Lexie off the lawn and towards the city.


	7. And a voice keeps saying

After we ate we returned to the Pegasi. The two brown winged horses were still exhausted. They were laying lazily eating the grass while lying on their wings. Ellie tried to force them to stand, but they stubbornly refused to budge from their position. "Stupid animals!" She cursed.

"Maybe Lexie just overworked them?" I shot a look at Lexie.

"Or maybe you're too heavy and exhausted the one you were riding."

"Then why is your's just as tired!" I snapped. "Are you saying you weigh as much as two people?" Even Ellie chuckled slightly. "What are we gonna do until they're ready?"

"No, I packed more than you two I'm sure, and I'm carrying your stuff too."She said gesturing to the saddlebags next to her Pegasus.

"If you two are done bickering like brothers and sisters can we figure out what we're going to do until the Pegasi are ready to fly again!" She realized what she had said.

"You do realize we are siblings right?"

"Although I still have my doubts." Lexie coughed.

"That's beside the point!"

"Look we're in DC, some of the best museums are here." Lexie pointed to the large white building behind us. "My dad and I went here last time we were here, it's actually kinda of interesting. I remember they have Dorothy's shoes from _The Wizard of Oz,_ and an exhibit on the Revolutionary War one on the Civil War."

I immediately stopped her. "Sold! Let's go! Sounds interesting." I grabbed my backpack from Lexie's saddle bag and threw it over my shoulder. "Civil War exhibit first!"

"Quite a man you've got there." I heard Lexie mumble to Ellie, sarcasm dripping from her voice.

The first thing I did when I entered the museum was run over to the map that was next to the main desk. I scanned the map quickly looking for the Civil War exhibit. When Lexie and Ellie caught up to me I was ready to bolt over to the stairs and find the exhibit myself. Ellie grabbed my shoulder before I disappeared again.

"Sean!" She said pulling me around in a spin. "Calm down, take a breath."

I took a deep breath. when I had calmed down a little I said, "Sorry Ellie... A little excited, I've always wanted to come here!" I was shaking like a little kid.

"I can see that." she laughed. "But don't take off, gods know's what kind of monsters are around here." She looked around the gigantic room. "Okay, which way is it?"

I pointed to a room that was just above us on the map. "We just need to go up these stairs." Then I pointed to the closest staircase on the map. I motioned for them to follow me in the direction of the stairs. Ellie stayed close behind me, and Lexie lagged a few steps behind.

When we arrived at the exhibit I noticed four girls around our age huddled around a small cannon in a glass case. They were all wearing rather short skirts and my first impression of them was the cheerleader type of girl. They made me a little uncomfortable as Ellie and I crossed the room towards the first part of the exhibit.

Lexie stood by the doorway watching us. "We gotta leave here in an hour so don't just stand there if you want to see the rest of the museum." She ordered from the doorway.

I ignored her and turned toward the relics. The first thing I saw was an old uniform, it was worn and had bullet holes in several sections. Then I moved on to the weapons case. There was a large assortment of weapons, pistols, rifles, and cavalry sabers. One sat in a case by itself, I leaned over to get a closer look at it, but somebody touched my shoulder.

I turned around and all four of the girls had surrounded Ellie and me. Their mouths grinned malevolently. "Hi." Said the center one flirtatiously as she stepped between me and Ellie. "My name's Jordan, have you seen the culture exhibit?" She grabbed my hand and started to tow me away.

I looked back at Ellie. "Umm..." I stuttered. "I'm here with some friends, sorry." I yanked my hand out of her tight grasp and rejoined Ellie. "Maybe some other time." I lied.

"I'm too hungry to wait, so I'm gonna make you an offer." She grinned as her "friends" circled us. "You let us kill you and we'll make it as painless as we can, deal?"

Ellie gripped my hand tightly. "Go to Hades!" Ellie pulled out her sword and pointed it at the girl. "Back off, there isn't any way I'm going to let you kill us." The girl's growled, each showing long white fangs.

"You can try and fight us, but it'll just be prolonging your death." Jordan sneered. "You can run, but you'll only die tired." They took a step forward and all their hair burst into orange flames. Their skin's color drained to pale and their eyes changed to a glowing red. "So what's it gonna be?"

I looked around the room for Lexie, but couldn't find her. Ellie swung her sword at the girl to her left and she disappeared in a golden plume of dust. "We'll take our chances." She said swinging her sword again. This time her target dodged her attack and Ellie stumbled to regain her balance.

I drew my sword and rolled from where i was standing, just in time to avoid getting slashed by Jordan's claws. She hissed again and leapt at me again. I shielded myself with my sword, her clawed hands grasped around the hilt of my blade. We struggled over the sword for a few seconds, when she kicked me in the gut and sent me flying into one of the glass cases.

She threw my sword over the side of the railing. She slowly walked over to me. I frantically looked around the ruins of the exhibit for something to defend myself with. I dove for the sword I had almost landed on. My hands settled around it's grip. I immediately swung the bronze sword in front of me just as Jordan charged me.

She disintegrated into a pile of golden dust, similar to what had happened to the other girl. I looked for Ellie, she was fighting off both of the flame-headed, demon girls by herself. I was halfway across the room when an arrow sprouted from one of their heads and she burst into dust. I looked over and Lexie was pulling back her bow and launched a second arrow, killing the second demon girl instantly.

"Empousa." Sighed Lexie. "Freaking vampire demon girls." Lexie placed her bow back in her backpack. "You two okay?"

Ellie nodded and walked over to us. "Nice blade, where did you get it?"

I pointed over to the remains of the glass case it had been in. "I grabbed it when that _thing_ threw my sword."

"A hero is only as good as his weapon." Lexie joked. "And you are a bad hero."

I ignored her comment and walked over to the ruined display case. I looked at the plaque above the case. "It was General Sherman's saber." I pulled the sword's scabbard our from the destroyed glass. "It say's it was given to him after his victory at Shiloh." I looked over at Ellie and Lexie. "I do need a sword of my own." I looked at the sword's grip, there was the shape of a woman stabbing a dragon on the hilt.

Lexie came over to me and looked at it. "That's Mom! Why is she on Sherman's sword..."

I was about to say something, but Ellie interrupted me. "That's all very nice, but we better get out of here before security get's here and wonder's why you are holding a museum artifact." It was true, I could hear the sound of people running down the hall. We must have made a lot of noise in the short amount of time we were fighting. "Come on let's get out of here!" She was at the steps now.

I looked at the hilt of the saber again. "Mom." I slid the blade into its scabbard, then ran down the stair's following Ellie and Lexie. We bolted down the stairs, and sprinted for the door way. Two security guards almost grabbed us, but we were able to slip away from them.

Once we were outside we ran to our Pegasi, Lexie flug her saddlebags over her's and climbed on. Ellie flung herself on her's and pulled me on behind her. The museum security was right behind us. I barely had enough time to wrap my arms around Ellie, when we bolted into the sky. I could hear the security guard's yelling behind us as we glided away, I couldn't help but wonder what they thought they had seen.


	8. This is where I'm meant to be

The Pegasi weren't exactly happy that we had rushed them into the air so quickly. They stampeded through the sky at speeds well over what we had pushed them to before. Ellie was unable to steer the winged horse as it rocketed after Lexie's. After three hours they started to decelerate to a more manageable speed.

Ellie looked back to make sure I was still behind her. When she saw me, she smiled. "That was a little more than I expected, I don't think I've ever seen them fly that fast before." Her voice was still muffled over the sound of the rushing wind, but I could still hear her.

I was shaking a little bit, I had never been a person for height's. Riding a Pegasus at a speed like that felt like riding on top of a passenger jet while there's turbulence. I looked down at the ground two hundred feet below us. The scenery had drastically changed. The land was a lot flatter, and trees seemed to be less densely packed. I could see a large city on the horizons. "Ellie, we need to stop and talk to Lexie." I yelled over the wind. "We need to figure out where we are." Ellie nodded and was about to speed up the Pegasus, but Lexie got the same idea and veered her's toward the ground.

We landed in a clearing. All three of us climbed off our Pegasi and unpacked. "Where do you think we are?"Lexie asked. Me and Ellie both shrugged. "Great..." She looked around.

"I don't think we're anywhere near D.C. we were flying too long for that." Ellie placed her pack on the ground and laid back on it.

"Where are we going in the first place?" I asked as I checked my backpack to be certain Lexie hadn't thrown anything out.

"California, somewhere around the Bay Area. That's where Austin was when I last heard from him."

"I think we're in Texas."

Lexie looked over at Ellie. "How do you know that?" She seemed surprised.

"I'm from here.." She pointed to the skyline. "That's Dallas, my dad lives there. So again, you are welcome I came along." She threw me a bottle of water from her pack. "Now then, what's the plan?"

"Honestly, I never thought I'd get this far." Lexie admitted. The Pegasi made a horrible screeching noise. "What the Hades!" We all looked over at them. Again they reared up on their hind hooves. "Oh no!" Lexie shouted before the winged -horses bolted into the sky again and flew east.

"Well crap.." I cursed. "Now what we gonna do?" I kicked the dirt in front of me.

"We go to to the bus station. We've already made it halfway across the country in half a day, I think we'll be able to-" Ellie grabbed her gut and winced. I ran to her side.

"Move your hands." I ordered. After a few seconds I was able to pry her hands away to reveal four long, bloody gashes that went along her stomach. "Oh crap, things keep getting worse." I complained as I put pressure on the wound.

"The Empousa must have gotten me in the museum." She groaned. "Sean, get the thermos out of my backpack."

"I got it, Sean just keep applying pressure to that. I'm going to use your jacket as a bandage too okay?" I just nodded in response. Lexie jogged over and handed me an open thermos. "Give her _some_ of this, just a couple of sips we need to save it and I don't want it to do more harm than good." I quickly took the thermos out of her hand.

I used one hand to hold it up to Ellie's lips while the other kept the pressure on the wound. She quickly took to large sips and I pulled it away from her. The gash started to slowly shrink. "You okay Ellie?" I asked as I held her hand.

"I still hurt's." She groaned. "I don't think I can continue for the day."

I looked over at Lexie. "You aren't going to ditch us are you?" I said sarcastically.

"We have to find and wait for a bus anyways, by the time we do that I think it'll be safe for Ellie to have more nectar and I think she'll be fine." Lexie threw me my saber that I had left laying next to my backpack. "Let's get moving."

I attached my new sword to my belt, pulled my backpack on and helped Ellie stand up. "You think you can make it a few miles?" I asked as she slung her arm over my shoulder.

"If you can make it, I think I will." She smiled. Lexie grabbed both her's and Ellie's backpacks and led the way towards the road.

The heat was not making it easy to help Ellie walk the entire distance to Dallas. By the time we arrived, we were covered in sweat and our legs were sore. We stopped at the first bus stop we could find. It wasn't one that would take us to the next state, but it would at least get us to the station.

Ellie flopped down next to me and rested her head on my lap. "Are you okay?" I asked. I opened the bottle of water she had given to me and passed it to her.

"Thanks." She said dryly. "Sean, you're a good friend." She smiled up at me.

"I'm not the good friend." I corrected. "You are the one risking your life to help." She passed me the bottle and I took a long drink from it, not even bothering to wipe it first.

Lexie was sitting on the other side of the bench rolling her eyes. She watched as a bus approached. It was still around four in the afternoon, but as the bus got closer it's headlights grew brighter. I had to shield my eyes as it pulled up to the bus stop.

When I could finally open my eye's I could see that the bus was a blinding yellow and said "the bus of hot shots" painted in dark red on the side. It's door's opened slowly, revealing a teenage boy with sandy blonde hair and a tan. He was wearing a bleach white T-shirt and torn jeans. "Well, don't just stand there, let's get a move on." He ordered waving to us and gesturing to the bus.

"Austin!"I looked over just in time to see Lexie bolt up from the bench and hugged him.

The boy smiled sympathetically and gently pushed her back. "I'm sorry Lexie," He apologized shaking his head, "but I'm not your boyfriend." Lexie's excitement disappeared just as quickly as it had come and had been replaced with disappointment.

"Who are you then?" She croaked.

The boy smiled showing off his shining, white teeth, "I'm sure that you've heard of me before. I mean I am the big _hot_ shot on Olympus. Literally."

"Lord Apollo." She said blushing with embarrassment as she slightly bowed.

He smiled again before turning to a serious expression, "Right you are, I can see why my son likes you. Now we have no time to lose! Get in." He said motioning to the bus again. "I need you three to do me a favor."

Lexie grabbed her stuff and climbed aboard the vehicle. I looked down at Ellie, she rolled up right and had me help her walk to the vehicle. Luckily it was air-conditioned, if I had to sit in that heat for another minute I was sure I would burst into flames. I sat down on the first row of seats next to Lexie.

"Okay, first of all, thank you." Apollo said sitting back in the bus seat and starting it. "I didn't think anybody would come this far to find my son, I'd look myself, but I'm not allowed to..."

"Is that why you picked us up?" Asked Ellie politely, but still strained. "Just because you wanted to thank us for looking for Austin?" Her head rested on my shoulder tiredly.

"That's _a_ reason." Answered the god. "But I need another thing, then I can help you three get to California."

I looked at Lexie, who appeared to be considering the possibilities of what he wanted us to do. "What are the terms?"

"You two," he said pointing to me and Lexie, "go retrieve something for me - she can stay here. I'll even heal her free of charge." He pointed to Ellie, who was clutching her wound. "If you succeed and return, I'll get you a ride to California."

"You aren't gonna leave me here alone are you?!" Ellie blurted out.

"Aw don't worry I'll keep you company." Apollo winked. Ellie scoffed and rolled her eyes.

Lexie ignored the comment. "What will we be doing?"

Apollo grinned. "Okay, so I was doing this music gig the other day at the Dallas football stadium, anyway long story short, cute girl - not as cute as you." He grinned over at Ellie who rolled her eyes. I felt like I was going to explode, who was he to be hitting on her - not that I- never mind... "Anyways long story short I left my lyre at the stadium and I need you two to go get it for me." Finished the god.

"Why don't you go get it yourself? Why send us to get something you forgot?" I asked.

"Because I am a busy god and if I go down there I will be swarmed by fan girls just because of my pure awesomeness." Apollo pushed back his hair like he was in a movie and smiled at Ellie again. "So are you going to help me?" He stopped the bus in front of a gigantic football stadium.

All things considered what choice did we have. "Okay, so where is your lyre?" Lexie asked as we stood up from our seats.

"It _should_ be somewhere inside. Everything after the concert is a blur, I must have been... ah nevermind." He grinned. "It will most likely look like a guitar to you two, so the best advice I can give you is to look for a shiny golden guitar that screams property of Apollo. Now get going, I need to get moving within the hour if I'm to keep on schedule. The sun doesn't set on it's own if you know what I mean."

We nodded, then I looked at Ellie. "Hurry back." She stood up painfully and hugged me.

"We will." I promised. She looked a little worried as I pulled away from her. Lexie was already out the door by the time I turned around.


	9. I will find my way

Getting into the stadium was the easy part. The stadium was overflowing with people laughing and listening to music from various podiums. The hordes of people did not help the fact that we were on a time limit to get back. We passed a stand that was selling "Limerick" t-shirts.

We passed by a pile of flyers that had been set on a table. I scanned over it as we wandered through the crowd. Apparently it was a week long music festival. I turned it over and looked at a map of the festival. There had been a large music performance on the field the previous day.

I pointed it out to Lexie. "It's somewhere to start." she shrugged as we altered our course towards the center of the stadium.

We could see the giant grass field at the center of the stadium, there was a large podium built in the center. The stands around the field were coated with people, old candy wrappers, popcorn, and spilled soda. "You think it's over there on the podium?" I asked.

"Only one way to find out." When we reached the bottom we climbed over the railing and crossed the grass field.

We were a few yard lines away when I saw a figure standing on the podium digging through instrument cases. He didn't seem to notice us. Lexie and I crept up to the podium. "Who's there!?" He shouted as he bolted to his feet, holding a bright gold guitar. He looked down at us. "I'm supposed to be up here!" He shouted, clutching the instrument like it might fly away.

"We're just here for a friend's instrument, a lyre, have you seen it?" I asked eyeing the guitar in his hands. "We won't tell anybody you are here if you tell us if you've seen it."

"I know why you're here. You're demigods. You're here to take _my_ lyre back to Apollo." He pointed at us angrily. "I won't let you, this lyre will give me power again, I can get revenge on Heracles for killing me with my own lyre! What kind of music student kills they're teacher for correcting them!?"

"Um Lexie does actually." I said pointing towards my sister.

"I killed him for trying to kill us!"

" _After_ he said he was kicking us out for playing incorrectly." She scowled at me and and I turned back to the man, "You taught Heracles? Wait you must be Linos, you taught both Orpheus and Heracles. My history teacher told me about you."

He nodded, "The one and only, now if you don't mind I have a concert to get ready for." He bolted off the stage holding the guitar-lyre by the neck.

Lexie and I sprinted after him. He ran into the main area where the festival. We chased after him, trying to avoid knocking over the hordes of people that were in our way. "You'll never take this lyre from me." He shouted over his shoulder at us, his voice had a sort of lyrical phrasing to it. He ran into the part of the stadium that was covered with tents; all trying to make a profit by selling instruments, music albums, band t-shirts, concert tickets, and music lessons.

Lexie cursed. "Now we'll never find him." She looked out the glass wall. The sun was starting to set, we were running out of time. "We need to find him now!"

"Well if you were a vengeful, lute playing, maniac, where would you be?" I asked sarcastically.

"First off it's a _Iyre."_ She slapped me on the back of my head. "Lutes were used in the Renaissance. Get it together Sean!"

I rolled my eyes and looked through the crowd. I almost missed him, but I caught a glimpse of 'his' golden guitar-lyre in the center of the crowd. "Look there he is!" I announced to Lexie, pointing in his direction. We ran after him, bolting past the crowd.

We cornered him inside one of the tents. "Sorry no autographs right now, I have a concert to prepare for I'll sign stuff later." He waved us off and tried to walk past us only to be shoved back by Lexie and I.

"We're not here for autographs and you know that." I answered, slightly irritated.

"Now look Linus, you can't keep the lyre for several reasons. One, it's not yours to keep. Two, I sure as Hades ain't gonna let you keep it!" Lexie spoke as she stepped forward towards him. "We need it so Apollo will stop flirting with Sean's crush, and to get him to give all of us a ride to California so we can continue on our quest to save my boyfriend! Now give us the lyre!"

"Oh the little girl wants my lyre." He laughed. "You don't deserve it, only _I_ deserve it. Only a worthy musician can have such an instrument . And guess what! I have the lyre!" He gave us a toothy grin as he backed up a few steps. "Apollo has other lyres, I only want one, he'll survive without it. Now like I said before I have a concert to prepare for." He plucked one of the strings and a blast of air shot out from the instrument that knocked me and Lexie to the ground.

"I'm going to kill him... We don't have time for this!" I heard Lexie grumble as she started to get to her feet again.

"You're not a threat to me." He plucked a few strings and what felt like a tornado hit me in the face. With me and Lexie both on the ground again he bolted out of the tent and back into the crowd.

"Now where did he go!?" I complained pulling Lexie back up to her feet.

"I'm really starting to hate this guy!" Lexie cursed as she led me out of the tent. We looked around for a few seconds. "Did he say something about a concert?" She asked pointing to a crowd forming in front of a podium.

"Yeah, he did." I answered. "You think he's up there?"

"Hello Dallas! Are you ready for the best concert of your lives!?"

Lexie turned her head in the direction of the noise and then back to me, "Yeah I'd bet my sword on it." She grinned.

We pushed our way through the crowd until we were a few meters from the stage. Lexie was right, Linus was standing center stage holding "his" Lyre.

"Okay, we found him, how do you expect we get it from him?" I nudged Lexie to get her attention.

"I'm guessing running up on stage and beating him until he give it to us isn't an option..."

I shook my head, "No, we don't need the police after us."

"He said earlier that only a worthy musician could have the lyre, so I guess we have to find someone to challenge him for it, but who..." she trailed off in thought and then suddenly her head popped up to look at me. "Sean!"

"Yeah?"

"You!"

"Me?"

"Yes you! You can challenge him!"

"What no! Why me!?" There was no way in Hades that I was going up there in front of those people.

"Do you know anyone else that knows how to play an instrument that is currently here with us?"

"Yeah you! You can play french horn, sure not well, but you can still play it."

"Yeah about that... I never knew how to play it, I was only at your school for a week and I just faked the entire time. So you're all we got."

"Gods no!" I shook my head. "Anyway I don't even have my instrument." I gave her a smug grin. "Any other plan, you are the "smart" one." I said sarcastically.

"You do realise we're at a music convention right... we can just _borrow_ one."

"You mean steal, have you been spending too much time in the Hermes cabin!" I backed away from her. "Are you insane, what if we're caught?!"

"What else can we do! I told you at the very beginning of this entire quest that there'd be a possibility for this kind of stuff to happen. And if we don't get caught then we don't have to worry about the what if."

"That makes a lot of sense..."

"Look this is the point where you decide whether or not you continue on with me or not, you have two options, challenge him and go with me, or back down and find your own way home. Your choice; choose wisely."

I sighed. "Sometimes I hate you..." I looked at the nearby stalls for a trumpet. "Well, where are we going to find a horn... or had you not thought about that? Because I don't see a single one."

"Just come on." She said grabbing my arm and pulling me towards the tents.

 _ **Sean/Author: Yet again, thanks to my editor Lexie, and Aasha I hope you start reading these again. Please review, some advice would be appreciated.**_

 _ **Lexie/Sean's most favorite sister/friend in the world: Sure thing, what else would I do with my free time other than have a social life... Readers I need your help to solve an argument Sean and I have been having. Do we (Sean) need to use more detail when describing things? I think yes.**_


	10. I can go the distance

Getting a trumpet was surprisingly easier than I thought it would be. Turns out my six hours in the Hermes cabin served me well. The plan was simple, while Lexie distracted the man in charge of the tent I would run in grab a trumpet and get hopefully unseen.

As I waited outside the tent for Lexie to distract the man I heard the familiar sound of symbols falling to the floor along with several other percussion instruments. (When you have a clumsy percussion section, you get used to hearing it.)

"Hey what do you think you're doing!?" Shouted a man's voice inside the tent. I went around the back of the tent as the man shouted at Lexie. I lifted the cloth wall at the back and entered without being noticed.

"Oh I am so sorry! I was just walking by and all of a sudden all of this falls to the floor! I swear I didn't touch a thing! Please don't be mad."

"Just get out! Didn't you see the sign 'No kids allowed without parents." I could picture Lexie grumbling to herself about not being a kid, as I searched the back of the tent for a trumpet I could use. If it were under different circumstances I would have been in heaven, there were so many to choose from!

"Oh, but let me at least help you pick all of this up. I feel bad enough as it is, and I'd feel so much worse if I just left leaving you to pick all of this up." I stopped at a silver trumpet that was lying in an open case, I picked it up and replaced it with a note that said:

 _I-O-U 1 trumpet._

I then slipped out of the tent and bolted for the meeting spot Lexie and I decided on.

"Well I suppose you could stay and hel-"

She looked back to see me standing a few tents away holding the instrument. "Oh sorry my parents are calling for me, I have to go." She said backing out of the tent, "I'm really sorry sir!" She shouted before running off to join me.

/\/\/\/\

"So what exactly am I being _forced_ to do?" I asked Lexie as we crouched next to the stage.

"First off I didn't force you, I gave you a choice, and you chose to do this. You're going to go up there and challenge Linus to a... Music Off? Is that what this is called?"

"Does it matter?"

"Not really. So you're going to challenge him and beat him so you'll be considered the most worthy musician and get the lyre so we can leave before the sun set which is in about twenty minutes. So no pressure." Lexie grinned while shoving me towards the stairs.

"Have I told you how much I hate you right now?"

"What!?" She shouted grinning while cupping her hand behind her ear as if to help her hear me, "Sorry I can't hear you over huge crowed you're going to perform for!"

I glared at her. "You owe me."

"Don't expect me to ever repay you."

I ignored her and made my way up the stairs leading to the stage. I had no idea as to how I was going to approach this situation, I figured I'd just wait for someone to acknowledge me and wing it from there.

I made it to the top of the stage and could already feel the stares of the people in the crowd, I felt my heart rate increase as I walked up to Linus. Gradually the roar of the crowd died down probably because they had no idea who this ginger kid was and more importantly why was he interrupting their concert.

Linus must have noticed the lack of enthusiasm in the crowd because he turned around to see what the problem could be. "Sorry, no fans on stage." He shooed me away with his hand.

"Well that's a relief because he's not a fan!" I heard Lexie call from behind me. I ignored her.

"Yeah um..." I coughed uncomfortably. "I- I umm, want to challenge you."

"Oh really? Sorry kid, but I share the spotlight with no one."

"BOO! BOO!" I'll let you guess who that was.

"What afraid you're going to get showed up at your own game?"

"Excuse me boy?" He exclaimed leaning against the golden lyre-guitar. "You think you're better than me?" He looked to the crowd. "Lets ask the crowd what they think. What do you guys think? Should we give the kid a chance?!" He announced to the crowd.

"WOOO YEAH! WOOO YEAH! LETS GO GINGER!" Again I'll let you guess who that was.

Regardless, Lexie's plan seemed to work; the crowd responded just as enthusiastically as her.

"All right ginger what are the rules?"

"Who ever the crowd likes more wins." I paused. "Who ever wins gets the other person's instrument."

"Deal. Don't worry folks this won't last too long." He said turning to the crowd, and then back to me. "Name your style."

"Wait, you gotta swear on the terms." I interrupted.

"Fine, I swear on my black heart I will give you the lyre _if_ you win."

I stopped him. "Now actually swear on it, I don't trust you."

"Fine I swear on the River Styx and the band." He sighed. "Now, what kind of music did you have in mind?" He leaned even heavier on the lyre now.

"How about at jazz?"

"Haha! You need soul to play jazz boy. And I know for a fact that you have no soul." He said while gesturing to my red hair.

"I've got plenty of soul, think you got enough?" I spat towards him, more for effect than anything.

He just smirked at me and stepped forward. "Well then, I'll go first, I am the star after all." He brought the lyre up in both his hands and played a few lines. It had a blues quality that reminded me of what my section leader would have us warm up on. The crowd was cheering loudly when he was done. "Beat that ginger. If you back down now I might sign your shirt."

"I can and will." I grinned bringing my trumpet up to my lips. I played a song I had played. I played a section of "Ain't That a Kick in the Head." "That got enough soul for you?" I joked.

He sneered angrily as he noticed the crowd was cheering just as much for me as it _had_ been for him. "You're going to need a lot more than that to compete with the big boy's."

"Good thing you're not so big." I answered sarcastically. "Now's your _last_ chance to win, go break a leg, really break your leg."

He sneered again before he went back to playing his lyre. It sounded like he was playing electric guitar. The instrument blared guitar rhythms from some old band my father listened too. The crowd around us got really excited and started to cheer even louder for Linos. When he finished he looked over at me. "Want to surrender now, or want to look like a bigger fool than you already do?" His words stung like bee's.

I honestly wanted to surrender. How could I compete with him, he was too good. I heard a female voice in my head say ' _fear is more powerful than any army, fear can route armies and topple empires.'_ The voice sounded familiar. ' _Focus my son, focus on the task at hand.'_ I knew who it was in that instant. It was my mother, I half wanted to cheer out in joy, and half thought I was crazy.

"Are you going to play or not?" asked Lenus, waking me from my thoughts. "I don't have all day." He leaned against the stage backdrop and plucked his strings casualty.

I took a deep breath and prepared to play again. The notes ran through my head, I remembered every quarter note, every rest. I made a prayer to my mother and lifted my horn. I played 'West End Blues.' Another song I had learned in jazz band, I flew through the intro and onto the part that was normally the solo, as I approached the part that I _always_ messed up no matter how hard I tried I tensed, I was starting to get nervous. I wavered for a minute as the notes flew by but I didn't stop, before I knew it I had finished the song.

I hadn't noticed it but the crowd had started to dance to the blues tune. I looked to the very back and Apollo was smiling in the very back. My success was probably because of him. The god tapped on his watch, signaling me that we were running out of time.

"Well, Linus I guess I win."

His face grew an angry red. "Are you sure we can't come to some sort of arrangement?" He battered. "I'm sure there is something you want. Two demigods in the middle of the county, maybe you need information... or a car?"

I didn't have time to answer before my sister came up behind us and yanked the lyre from his hands. "Thanks, but no thanks." Lexie started towing me off the stage and towards Apollo. Once we got there the sun god took the instrument from her.

"Thank you, I thought you wouldn't make it." He looked to the horizon, the Sun had begun to set. He pointed over to a delivery van. "It should get you as far as Arizona." He waited a moment. "I must go, your friend is waiting for you two at the cafe over there." He gave Lexie a blinding grin and a wink before jogging over to the bus as it turned back into a sports car, he jumped over the side and drove away.


	11. I'll be there someday

We met Ellie by the back of a large, faded red semi-truck. A large winged bird had been painted on the side with flames bursting off it and was peeling off in large chunks making it look like it was going bald.. "I could hear you from over here, it sounded great!" She announced handing me my bag back.

"I didn't think so." I complained. "I was a little out of tune."

"Not to mention rushing..." insulted Lexie. "Oh and I don't mean to burst your bubble, but I think we'd better climb in now." She pointed over to the diner. "I think the driver's getting ready to go."

The man she was talking about had fiery-red hair and wore a black uniform with yellow and orange flames going across it, it looked more like a bowling shirt than a delivery uniform. Across the back is said "Phoenix Delivery - we'll get it there, flame or fire ." in flaming letters.

I turned back to Lexie and saw her visibly cringe. "What people get paid to wear nowadays..." she mumbled

Ellie and I nodded and followed her into the back of the vehicle. I was surprised by how dark it was inside. the only source of light was a small air vent on top that let in the moonlight. There were wooden boxes stacked along the sides.

Lexie sat down on a crate across from me and Ellie. She was staring at something in her hand. "What is that?" I asked, hoping to break the silence as the truck started.

"I don't know, it was on the ground." She handed me a blazing orange feather. "It feels really warm. I don't know why though, it's freezing in here." She was right, the feather was extremely warm, my palms were starting to sweat just holding it. "Ellie, you know anything about birds?"

She shook her head violently. "I hate the things, foul creatures."

Lexie shrugged and took the feather back from me. "I'm probably just being paranoid. She stuck the feather into her hair like a Native American and we all chuckled quietly. "How about you two get some sleep I want to think about something."

"Lex, you look exhausted, I think you're the one that needs rest, I'll keep watch." Offered Ellie. "I got to rest while you two were helping Apollo."

My sister started to argue but gave in as she began to yawn. "Fine, but wake me if you get tired." She rolled over and used her backpack as a pillow, she was snoring away in seconds.

A few awkward seconds passed before I spoke. "You sure you don't want me to keep watch? You must still be tired."

"No, I'll be fine.." A few more moments passed between us. "You should probably go to sleep too." She leaned against the wall of the truck.

She handed me my backpack and I placed it behind me. "Thanks." I braced myself between the trucks wall and another crate. "You're a great friend."

There was a moment of silence before she spoke. "You think we could be more than friends?" Her voice was shaky and nervous. I'm certain that if it hadn't been so dark we both would have laughed at how embarrassed we both were. "I mean, if you want to?" She blurted out quickly.

"I think I should have asked _you_ that." I was at least just as nervous as her. "Isn't that how it works?"

"Well you were taking too long, so I beat you to it." She answered smugly. I was relieved that she understood what I had meant. We both moved closer cautiously, hoping to not push the others boundaries. "We're both going to need to talk about this in the morning."

"Agreed, talk in the morning." She kissed me softly on the cheek before pushing me back to where I had been laying. Eventually, I fell asleep.

* * *

 _I was standing in a large room made entirely out of marble. There were twelve, enormous thrones in a U-shape, surrounding the center. A small hearth burned in front of all the thrones. At each throne sat twelve equally gigantic people yelling at the top of their lungs at the other. The only conclusion I could come to is that they were gods._

" _They almost destroyed each other! How can we expect them to work with each other now that the threat is gone!" Shouted a god wearing a pinstriped suit. He pointed towards a goddess with black hair and intense grey eyes. "This is the only way to undo the death Gaea caused. You lost children in this war too, don't you want to undo what happened?"_

" _Father, of course I miss the sons and daughters I lost but you don't seem to comprehend what might happen if they find out we did this again!" The goddess looked straight at me, but continued speaking as if I wasn't there. "We do this again and we put them all at risk. All I'm asking is to let them remember their lessons."_

" _Athena, we let them remember and they'll kill each other."_

" _You aren't thinking, what if they need to work together again! Alot of blood was spilt bringing them together, do you really wish to see it happen again!" I was frozen solid. This was my mother arguing with Zeus. "Their blood will be on your hands!"_

" _I was against it from the start, this is not my doing. I am undoing the damage that has been done!" Zeus turned to each god and goddess in the room and said "If any of you meddle around with this, you can join Kronos in Tartarus! This Council is dismissed."_

 _The rest of the gods left, but Athena remained. She walked over to where I stood. "Sean... Don't let this lead to more war. Austin and the others are just the beginning."_

" _What do you mean?" I asked surprised. "War?"_

" _It is too late to avoid it now, all we can do is prepare."_

 _I wanted to ask "prepare for what?", but she was talking again before I could._

 _"If you succeed in freeing your friends, you and your sister will face many hardships, but if you fail war will be upon us."_

 _My vision blurred as the room grew dark. Eventually my vision was pitch black. A few moments passed before a small flame flickered into view. The flame grew in intensity until I could see my battered sister tied to a wooden chair. I could hear her weeping, pleading to be set free._

 _A pale, blonde haired kid was standing angrily over her. She was struggling against her bindings when the boy smacked her hard across the face, leaving a bright red mark on her cheek. "Tell me!" He yelled. She didn't answer. "If you don't tell me I will get it from your friend."_

" _He doesn't know anything, hes an idiot!" She blurted out quickly. The sound of chains rattled as she shook._

 _The dream moved me closer to her, roughly an arms length away. At this distance I could see just how abused she was. She was covered in dirt and grime and her hair was caked with dried blood, her camp shirt was in tatters resembling a filthy rag more than a shirt. Her entire body was covered in bruises varying from black to yellow, I could see that her wrists and ankles were turning raw from struggling against the ropes binding to her to the chair. On her face a slash ran across her cheek, her right arm and left leg each had a jagged gash running down them. It looked as if someone had slowly dragged a knife down and stopped every time she tried to get away, only causing her to cut herself even more._

 _I wanted to scream, ask if she was okay, to prevent the blond boy from doing anything worse, but my voice refused to work and I couldn't move. It felt as if my body was encased in granite, completely immobilized.._

" _That's not an answer." He said in a frightening tone. He grabbed the chair and flung her to the ground. "This is taking too long!" He pulled her back upright and pulled out a knife. "Tell me what I want to know or I'll cut you to shreds." He ran the blade along her throat. "I know you're plotting something. Now tell me what!"_

" _I told you," She sobbed, "we don't have-!" He smacked her again. She sat hunched over for several seconds taking in raspy breaths. She lifted her head up slowly, blood dripping from her nose. "Just let me go, I only wanted to free my friends!" She sobbed in desperation_

" _Don't lie to me!" He shouted again before punching her._

" _What did I ever do to you!" She shrieked as he struck her a second time. "Why are you doing this to me!"_

 _He prepared to use his fist again. "If you tell me what I want to know I won't have to do this." He offered._

" _I can't tell you something that doesn't exist, are you really that crazy!" She was now crying, the tears mixing with the blood on her face to form heavy droplets on her chin and fell on her torn shirt._

" _Don't you ever call me crazy! You are a prisoner of Rome! You have no rights." He struck her on the temple with the hilt of his knife. She went limp, Lexie stopped resisting against the bindings. "She'll break eventually," He said to himself as he walked to the door, "or she'll die in the process." He slammed the door shut and the lone candle blew out._

 **Sean: Lexie loves that last line, and I like it too.**

 **Lexie: That line is freaking AWESOME! HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE IT!? I would go through the process of making an entire movie to just see that one part.**


	12. If I can be strong

I bolted upright from where I had been sleeping. My heart pounded like a jackhammer. My eyes flew to where Lexie was sitting, afraid that my dream had actually happened. She rested quietly against her backpack looking at a piece of paper. She quickly hid the paper under her backpack as she noticed I was awake.

"You okay?" She asked noticing how shaken up I had been.

' _Should I tell her?'_ I thought for a moment. ' _No, she might think I'm crazy'_ "Bad dream, that's all." I hoped that would satisfy her curiosity.

"Tell me about it." The truck rattled as she spoke. "Demigod dreams usually are more than just dreams."

"I... umm, I'd rather not talk about it." In truth, I couldn't talk about it. I had seen Lexie beaten, stabbed and god knows what else, there was no way I could explain it to her.

"Sean, as your younger sister and friend, tell me what happened." I decided to tell her about my dream, but left out the second half, with her getting tortured. After I finished telling her she seemed shocked. "You met Mom! What was she like?" She seemed more focused on Athena than what Athena had said.

"Lex, can't you focus for a second!" I said a little louder than I should have, I noticed Ellie laying next to me still asleep. "What about what she had said, what do you think she meant?" I focused on being quiet enough to avoid waking the girl sleeping next to me.

She paused for a moment to think, before she could speak the truck stopped. I was about to ask what was going on when Lexie shoved her hand over my mouth. "Shh, we don't want him to look back here."

I rolled my eyes and licked her hand. She quickly withdrew her hand in disgust and glared at me. "Gross!" she mouthed and then wiped her hand on my shirt.

We sat listening to the man's footsteps getting further and further away until finally I heard the sound of a garage door being pulled shut.

Lexie sighed and then glared at me. "I can't believe you licked my hand! What are you, ten-years-old!" She shouted wiping her hand on my shirt yet again.

"Well then keep your hand away from my mouth!"I hissed.

She scoffed and rolled her eyes before standing up, "Just wake up Ellie, we need to get moving."

I went to make another remark at her, but she had already turned away to gather her things. I sighed and bent over to wake Ellie.

"Five more minutes Dad." She groaned rolling over.

Lexie snorted, and then said in a deep man's voice "Ellie we're going to be late for your game!" I shot my sister an angry glare.

Ellie bolted upright, "No! I refuse to be disqualified!" After a few seconds she came to her senses and glared at Lexie. "Har-har very funny Lexie."

Lexie chuckled, "Man, you children of Nike are as competitive as they get." She walked over to the back doors of the van and opened the doors before hopping out. "Now get up, it's time to go."

Ellie looked at me for support. "Sorry, it actually was kinda funny." I said shrugging my shoulders before following Lexie out of the van.

"It was not funny." Ellie huffed hopping out of the van."

Lexie rolled her eyes. "Does it matter? My method of waking you up doesn't change the fact that we should get out of here quickly." She paused and took off her jacket. "Is it just me, or is it really, really hot in here?"

"It's not just you, I'm sweating bullets and I'm just standing here." I answered wiping a bead of sweat from my forehead.

Ellie gave me a weird look, "Ew."

"He seems to be enjoying grossing us out today, not even five minutes ago he slobbered all over my hand."

I rolled my eyes, "Slobbered is a bit of an exaggeration don't you think?" Lexie gave me a pointed look. "Fine whatever." I said holding my hands up in surrender. I looked around and noticed a ladder hanging about eight feet off the ground. "Hey Ellie help me move these crates, I'm going to see if I can find an exit." I requested as I walked towards a small stack of wooden crates close to the ladder.

"Sure thing" she answered, following me over to the crates. After we had moved the crates under the ladder she looked at me and said "Be careful," her voice reflecting a hint of concern.

"Yeah I've seen you climb the rock wall at camp Sean, it isn't pretty." Lexie called from behind us.

"Will do." I said ignoring my sister before heaving myself up the first few rungs. I was barely half way up when my arms and lungs began to burn. Once I reached the top I pledged to myself that I would start working out.

"See anything up there?" Yelled my sister from the ground.

Once I caught my breath I stood up and searched for an exit. The warehouse was larger than I had thought on the far side was a garage door.

"I see a large door on the other side." I yelled back at my sister, "I think it goes to the outside!"

"Great! Now get down here so we can get out of this oven!"

"Definitely!" I called back right before I grabbed onto the ladder, "I swear it's getting hotter in here by the second." I grabbed onto the ladder, but quickly recoiled my hand and yelped in pain.

"Sean what happened?" Ellie shouted up.

I looked down at my hand and saw a bright red burn mark traveling across the palm of my hand. "What the heck?" I heard the loud flapping of wings behind me and spun around. "What the heck is that!?"

On the other side of the landing perched on the rail was gigantic bird It was a fiery red and orange with magnificent plumage. It stood three feet and had a wingspan twice it's height. At its taloned feet were causing the metal rail to turn red hot.

I reached to draw my saber when it _squawked_ a ball of fire at me and I froze.

"Sean! What's going on!? What was that?"

"Some sort of large... scary... fire bird... _thing_ " I responded best I could.

"Fire bird?" I heard Ellie ask. "What the heck is he talking about?"

"The only thing I could imagine is a Phoenix... that would explain the feather we found." I heard Lexie say. "Sean! Don't panic-

"How do I not panic, this things gonna barbecue me!" I whimpered.

"If it's what I think it is, it's a rather peaceful creature, just don't threaten it. Just back away slowly and come down the ladder."

I reached to grasp the ladder again before I remembered it was too hot to grasp.

"I can't, the metal is conducting the heat from the bird, I'll burn myself."

"He's going to have to jump." I heard Lexie say to Ellie

"He can't jump from up there, he'd kill himself!" Ellie said back

"You think I didn't realise that!" I she snapped, "Sean we're going to see if we can find something to break your fall. Stay put and don't do anything stupid." Lexie shouted up at me before she and Ellie split up to find something to help me get down.

After several minutes I started getting nervous under the beady stare of the bird. Just when I thought I was going to scream for them to hurry up I heard Lexie.

"Sean! I found some bags of...bird seed that you could jump onto. They aren't the softest thing in the world, but they should keep you from killing yourself."

"That's comforting Lex! Now where are they?"

"There on your left side, but you're going to have to walk past the bird to get there. Once past it you should be able to see it if you look over the rail."

"Is this your way of getting rid of me?!" I answered as I slowly took a step towards the Phoenix. THe monster cocked its head as I grew closer. "This is freaking crazy..." I groaned. As I got closer my feet started sticking to the metal walkway, with every step I took a muffled _plop_ sounded. As I went to take one last step my foot refused to move and I fell to the ground. AS my hands made contact with the searing hot metal I let out a painful scream.

The Phoenix _shrieked._

"Sean!" I heard Lexie shout, "You have to get up come on! I know it hurts, but if you don't you're going to hurt even more in a few seconds."

I pushed myself to my feet and tried to move them again, but they refused to budge. I looked down and saw the rubber had melted and was stuck to the metal. "I can't move! My shoes melted!"

"Are you kidding me!?" I she shouted. "Sean you're going to have to take your shoes off."

"What!? If I do that I won't be able to walk at all! The floor's too hot!"

"You have no choice! It's like walking on coals! You just have to be in the right mindset, it's possible to do it without burning yourself so long as you walk normally. Like you would down the street!"

I sighed. "You are so trying to get rid of me." I bent down and untied my shoes and pushed myself upright. I slipped my feet out of the shoes and stood on top of them. I took a deep breath and stepped onto the metal. I hissed as the metal blistered my feet and I walked along the walkway as fast as I could. As I ran I looked for the stack of bird seed. When I reached the rail I had yet to find it.

"Lexie where- Ahhhhhh!" I had leaned over to call for Lexie and had grabbed on to the rail with both hands.

"Sean! Shhh! Be qui-" Before Lexie could finish her sentence I was launched into the air. The Phoenix must have rammed me over the edge.

' _Well, now I'm gonna die'_... Is what I wish I had said as I fell, but it sounded more like "AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" When I landed the wind was knocked out of me.

"Sean come on!" I heard Lexie shout. I groaned and started digging myself out of the bird seed. As I pulled myself out of the pile I heard the loud crashing of crates and a high pitched scream from somewhere inside the warehouse, closely followed by the lights turning off, leaving me blind.

"Lex! Ellie!" I called. "Where are you!" They didn't answer.

Then I heard a painful _shriek!_ I turned around to face _it._ The phoenix blazed brightly in the inky black on top of a stack of crates a few meters away. It crowed again and shot a molten column of flame towards me.

Just before it reached me, somebody flew into me with enough strength to knock me to the ground out of the fire's path.

"Sean, you are an idiot!" Lexie's voice uttered. I could barely see her form next to me. "Be quiet, or it will hear you and follow me"she whispered, before bolting around the corner of a stack of black crates.

I followed her and soon saw Ellie ducked between two piles of "Calypso's planting soil" bags. "You told him he's an idiot right?" she hissed as she shook her head. "I can't believe you grabbed the rail! How did you forget that it was red hot!?"

"Sorry! I was more focused on ignoring my feet! Why are the lights out?" I asked quietly.

"So it can't see us." Answered Lexie "We have a plan."

"If I remember right, our weapons will melt the moment they piece the Phoenix's feather, how do you expect to kill it?" Lexie was surprised I remembered that.

"Glad you remember _something_ from monster class at camp." She praised sarcastically. "But we don't need to use our weapons. You see those?" She pointed toward the fire sprinkler system above us. "We're going set them off, and in the process put out the flaming bird."

"How are you going to set them off?" I asked.

"With this." She said holding up the Phoenix's feather we had found in the van. "I'm going to use it to set the bags of bird seed on fire." She explained with an evil glint in her eye.

"I see one flaw in your plan." I commented. "Somebody would need to distract it so you can get over there."

Ellie crawled over to us and placed her arm seductively around me. "That's where you come in." I could see Lexie's eyes roll in the dim light.

"You seem to have a knack for attracting that flaming menace. Plus you're covered with bird seed any way." Added my sister muffling a slight chuckle.

I sighed. "Fine, you two go get in position. And Ellie, try to keep me from getting killed please." She smiled at me before disappearing behind the crate.

I waited behind until I saw Lexie was close enough to make it to the pile of bird seed in a couple of strides. "I have a bad feeling about this..." I mumbled. "Come here Phoenix!" I bellowed while clapping my hands like an idiot. "Fresh demigod ready to be fried!"

Good news: it worked. Bad news: it worked. I could hear the flapping of large wings first. Then like an angry sun rise, the Phoenix appeared in front of me. It locked both of it's large, beady, charcoal eyes on me. The heat coming off the creature was blistering. I looked over and saw that Lexie was about to set the bags of bird seed on fire. I realized that she needed more time if we wanted to set the sprinkler system off.

I picked up a clipboard, that had been left by one of the warehouse workers, and hurled it at the bird, and when it was a few feet away from the Phoenix a ball of flame shot out from the creature's beak and incinerated the clipboard.

"Worth a shot..." I grumbled before taking off despite the complaints of my feet.

It released another loud " _shriek!"_ took off after me. I rounded a corner when I heard Lexie shout out "Hahah! Yes!"

"Only a matter of time now." I said to myself as I saw the bird gaining on me. It lowered its head preparing to dive. I made a simple prayer to my mother, and watched as the bird dove, opening its beak to squawk a ball of fire at me and then " _ring!_ " A wave of hot steam washed over me as the sprinkler system went off dousing the bird and everything else in water.

I opened my eyes when the steam had settled. A soggy pile of gray ash had settled three feet away from me. My legs shook like earthquakes, my adrenalin rush had ended, and left me drained of energy.

"Now that was a fire!" Lexie shouted while running over to me,

"Good shot Lexie!" I heard Ellie cheer above me as the fire alarms blared and water drenched our clothing. "Sean you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just a little burned... maybe more than a little." I answered as ran over to me. "What about you?"

"Pssh no kidding. Just a few cuts and bruises." She flung her arms around me in a tight embrace. "Next time, don't scare me like that, when we get to safety let me look you over."

"I don't mean to ruin your moment," interrupted Lexie nervously. "But you can't kill a Phoenix, it's reborn out of its own ashes, remember." At that moment the pile of ash, that had once been a Phoenix moved. "It may be small for a minute, but they grow fast! And the place is kinda on fire. So we should probably get out of here before the bird or firefighters get here."

"Probably a good idea." I responded, I released my grip on Ellie reluctantly and pointed in the direction I remembered the door to be in. "I think the exit is that way."

 **Author's note/Sean: That took longer than I expected, gods Lex takes for ever to revise...**

 **Co-Author's note/Lexie: What he means to say is "I made so many mistakes that it took Lexie forever to correct all of them."**

 **Author's note/Sean: Yes, Lexie got promoted to co-author, but she's probatio for a while... and on thin ice.**

 **Co-Author's note/Lexie:** **Don't kid yourself, I've been the coauthor of this from practically the beginning.**


	13. I know every mile

It took my eyes a minute to adjust to the intensity of the Arizona sun. The air around us was dry and scorching, like the inside of an oven. The area around us was full of more storage buildings with a central parking lot that narrowed into a two lane road leading towards the central part of Phoenix.

"Guess we'd better start walking..." sighed Ellie. She took a gulp from her water bottle and stuck it back in her pack.

We were halfway across the parking lot when someone behind us shouted "You kids aren't supposed to be here!" I turned around to see a security guard driving towards us in a white golf cart.

For a moment I thought about running but we wouldn't have made it out of the parking lot before he caught up to us. "You kids are coming with me!" He ordered as he stopped next to us.

He ziptied each of our hands and stuffed us in the backseat of the cart. "How did you three even get here?" He asked. None of us answered. "Guess it doesn't matter. You three are going to the security office so I can call your parents."

"Crap..." I heard Lexie mumble under her breath.

The guard brought us inside a small building in the middle of the parking lot. "Go sit over there, while I call my superior." He ordered pointing to three chairs along the wooden paneled walls.

Before he reached the phone a voice came over the speakers. "Guardsman Taylor, report to warehouse thirteen."

"Damn it!" Said the security guard. "Don't you three move!" He grabbed his keys and left the building grumbling about not being paid well enough.

I looked over at my sister who held her dagger between her hands and was cutting off her bindings.

"What are you doing!" I said louder than I expected.

"Getting us out of here." She answered. She walked over to me and cut my hands free, then Ellie's. "Or do you want to explain why we were in that warehouse?"

"Point taken."

She walked over to Guardsman Taylor's desk and grabbed our backpacks. "Hey Sean, can you drive?"

"I have a learners permit, why?"

"You're diving us out of here." She threw me my backpack and a set of keys.

"I call shotgun!" Called Ellie as we approached the car. It was a solid white Ford with black, leather interior. I looked around checking for people that might be watching. After we climbed into the car, I started the engine.

I looked over at my girlfriend and put the car into gear. She rested her soft hand over mine on the shifter. "Try not to get us killed." Interrupted my sister behind us.

"Thanks for the support Lex." I answered. "Just hope we don't get pulled over." I pulled the car forward and out of the parking lot.

The streets of Phoenix were a winding maze of street lights and alleys. Even in the bright, daylight. It took us about an hour - and many near car crashes - before we found the California-bound on ramp.

"Grateful you brought me along yet?" I asked Lexie as I looked in the rear view mirror.

"Not at all." She grinned as we crossed the border into California. "I'd _be_ in San Francisco by now if it weren't for you two." Her tone told me truly believed the opposite. "But you're starting to make it up to me."

"Well that's good, I thought we were slowing you down." Commented Ellie as she turned on the radio and searched for a station. She settled on Californication,by Red Hot Chilly Peppers. One of my favorite songs.

"Still ready to ditch us?" I asked as I changed lanes to pass a semi-truck.

"I probably can't now." She grinned and rested her legs on the center console. "Considering how far we are from camp, I might as well stick around."

I eyed the gas gauge, quarter a tank, enough to get us to at least the next town. "So... who's hungry?"

"Cheeseburgers, definitely cheeseburgers." Ellie answered as she began humming along to the song.

We drove on for the next hour talking about whatever popped into our minds. The dry desert terrain around us sped by in a blur as we sped down the highway and out of Death Valley - very comforting name, don't you agree?

We stopped for food and to get me a pair of shoes, since the Phoenix melted my old ones at a town on the outskirts of the desert. The town wasn't very large, but it was full of tourist traps, not that any would ever visit.

The three of us sat at a park table eating cheeseburgers and discussing what we should do next. The weather was dry and hot but the tree we were under protected us from most of the sun's rays.

"We should leave the car here, catch the next bus north." I proposed as I wrapped my arm around Ellie's waist, gods it was awesome to feel like a normal kid for a bit. "It's only a matter of time before we're pulled over and they find out we stole it." I finished as I fished the keys out of my pocket and placed them on the table.

"Who are you and what have you done with Sean" Commented Lexie sarcastically. "You actually had a good idea! The world must be ending."

I rolled my eyes. "No, I get good ideas, you just don't listen." I responded as I kicked her under the table. She grinned and we ate the rest of the meal in silence.

"I'm gonna go check the bus schedule." Announced Lexie, while me and Ellie relaxed against the shade tree.

"Don't take too long." I answered as she walked away. "So..." I said turning back to Ellie, who was leaning against the tree comfortably next to me.. "What you want to do?"

"Teach you to use a sword properly." She answered as she stood up and reached down to pull me up. "We don't know what to expect, you might has well be useful." Ellie unsheathed her sword.

Only now could I see how elegant her sword truly was. The blade was one sided and wider at the top and bottom, skinny in the center. The hilt of the sword was gold and black that twisted towards the bottom with a rounded silver ball at the base. She wielded it with grace and experience as she started showing me a few different ways of attacking.

She made sure to point out that my sword was a lot different than her's and might have different advantages and disadvantages, but what she was teaching me might still come in handy.

"Now, show me what you've got." She ordered as she began coaxing me into drawing my weapon. "Come on, I won't hurt you." Her tone grew more arrogant by the second.

"Fine, you win." I unsheathed my new saber from its scabbard.

"I always win Sean." She bragged. "Always." She held her blade at an angle with both hands. I began to mimic her stance but she shook her head. "That saber's meant to be used with a single hand. It's meant to be used for quick slashes and parrying lighter blades."

I removed my left hand from the hilt and relaxed into a better balanced stance. "Better?"

She nodded. "Okay, now get ready to parry my attacks."

She swung her blade towards me. I attempted to block the assult with my saber but she was too strong. Instead of stopping the attack, I ended up with my sword on the ground and her blade at my neck.

"Don't block attacks, move them. Use my momentum to throw me off balance." She instructed. "Swing your sword at me, I'll show you."

I asked if she was sure and she nodded. I picked my sword up off the ground and got back into my stance. I swung the saber at a high angle. In a split second she not only blocked my sword's attack, but she used my swords momentum to launch it away from her and into the ground. Somewhere during her counter attack, I lost balance and fell forward on top of her.

"Well this is awkward." I announced after a few seconds of being on top of Ellie. I rolled to her side and laid on my back.

"You are so clumsy." Ellie said laughingly as she brushed the dirt off her tan shorts and torn Camp Half-blood shirt. I blushed. She twisted herself so she was laying on top of my chest.

"Is there a second place trophy?" I joked.

"Not that I can remember." She answered.

Lexie interrupted us. "Come on, lets go!" Ordered my younger sibling. "The bus is leaving in ten minutes for Sacramento!"

Ellie and I pulled ourselves to our feet, sheathed our discarded weapons and followed Lexie toward the bus station.


	14. Will be worth my mile

The entire eleven hour bus ride Ellie was giving me pointers on sword technique. I have to admit, she knew a lot. She told me ways of parrying blades, maneuvering past shields and ways of tricking an opponent to move certain ways. Of course this was all theoretical until put into practice, but I would take all the help I could get.  
By the time we arrived in San Francisco it was almost midnight. Even though it was mid summer, the coastal air brought the temperature down to what felt like freezing. In addition, in true San Francisco tradition, a dense combination of fog and smog had descended on the city. When we climbed off the bus by San Francisco park we immediately pulled our jackets out from our backpacks. Which actually was kind of a good thing, it covered the bloody tears that covered our camp shirts.  
"Where to next?" I asked Lexie.  
She shrugged as she some how stuffed her sword and bow into her jacket. She was wearing a stone gray jacket with a large snowy owl printed over her chest. "Ellie, you said you knew something about Austin's last known position?"  
Ellie was wearing an orange 'Nike' jacket, which I found a little ironic considering she had almost ripped my head off when I joked about her mom being a shoe goddess. She had the hood pulled tightly over her head and clung to my arm like she was freezing.  
"The recon team was over by some large bow and arrow." She answered through chattering teeth. "I think I could see the golden gate in the distance."  
I thought for a moment. I had been to San Francisco plenty of times. When your dad is a history writer, you tend to get around. 'A giant bow that has a view of the golden gate bridge?' That sounds familiar. Then it struck me like a stone. "The Embarcadero!" I blurt out.  
"The Ember- what?" Asked my sister confused.  
"The Embarcadero." I answered. "It's a place on the eastern side of the island. There's a statue called Cupid's Span, that is probably the bow and arrow you are talking about."  
"Well then, what are we waiting for?" Lexie threw her pack back over her shoulder and motioned for me to follow her.  
"Umm, Lex?" I stopped her. "East is that way." I pointed toward Oakland, across the bay. She stopped in her tracks and turned to face me and Ellie, embarrassed. "Maybe I should lead."

Turns out I was correct. The moment we stepped into the grassy area where the bow and arrow statue was, Ellie recognized it. She looked around for a moment, she used the Golden gate bridge in the distance as a reference to find where he called from.  
"He must have called from there!" She announced, pointing toward a water fountain. We followed her over to the fountain. The streetlights lit up it's artistic fountain brilliantly.  
We spent what felt like hours looking for any sign to where Austin had been taken, but found nothing. Lexie seemed to be getting more frustrated and sadder every moment. "He has to have left something!" She cursed. "Three people don't just disappear!" She seemed to break down in front of me. She collapsed on the rocky border of the fountain.  
I looked to Ellie, who unhooked her arm from mine and sat down a few feet away, curled up in a ball, trying to heat herself up.  
"Lexie, maybe it's time we called camp." I soothed, sitting down next to my crying sister and wrapping my arm around her. "It might be time to call it quits and have Annabeth come get us." She didn't answer. "I'm sorry Lex." I looked into her stormy gray eyes, tears out like rain drops.  
"Sean, I didn't tell you this, but I came to either come back with Austin or not at all." She sobbed into my shoulder.  
I was shocked, I knew she was sad but she planned on dying to find her boyfriend. "Lexie, how did that sound like a wise idea to you? You're more good to anyone alive than you are dead."  
"It's not that simple, I need him to keep going." She answered. "He was there for me when I lost Kim, he's the reason I keep fighting."  
"Lexie, I'm sorry." I answered slowly. "But there's nothing we can do know." She nodded and allowed me to pull her up. "Let's get you home."  
"Not so fast!" Ordered a flamboyant voice behind us. We turned to see a tall black haired man with blood red eyes and an angular face. He was wearing a snow white suite and dove wings jutted out from his sharp shoulders. "I think you were looking for me? Everyone always is." He jumped down off the fountain holding a short bow.  
"Who are you? Some sort of street performer?" I asked.  
"No you moron, that's Cupid." Answered Ellie, appearing at my side.  
"How come everyone always calls me that!" Complained the man. "Cupid is my Latin name, and that's something you don't wish I was, believe me."  
"Then who are you?" I asked stupidly.  
"I am Eros!" He answered. "God of passions, and erotic, powerful love and if you insult me again, I'll turn you into a dove." That was something I was certain was well within his capabilities so I took the hint and shut up.  
"Excuse me Mr. Eros, but what my genius boyfriend means to say is..." Ellie pointed at me. "What do you mean by looking for you?"  
"Everyone is always looking for love!" Responded the god. "That is what you're here for right? To make sure your love is true?"  
At the mention of 'looking for love' he seemed to grab my sister's attention. "No, their relationship is unimportant!" Interrupted Lexie, pushing me away and approaching Eros. "Can you help me find my love though? He's been missing for a week and I need to find him."  
"Oh no, it's you! The one Athena told me about!" Sighed the god,clutching his forehead like we were now a large headache. "Your mother is becoming a pain in my backside anymore, she's always forcing me to help... First that Annabell girl and that Percy kid, lucky for me, it worked out without my help. Now you and... and..." He paused for a moment. "What is this guys name?"  
"Austin, blonde, tall, good with a bow, have you seen him?"  
His blood red eyes closed for a moment. "Love is a dangerous thing my dear, are you sure you want to find him? It could get you killed."  
"I have braved vampire cheerleaders, grouchy phoenixes, and a self centered musician, who by all rights should be dead, just to find him, you have to help me."  
Eros nodded then reached behind him and pulled out a cartoon map of San Francisco. He threw the map into the air and notched a heart shaped arrow. He released the arrow and it flew through a small portion of the map. The piece of paper landed in Lexie's hands.  
"Caldescott tunnel?" Lexie seemed confused. "What's there?"  
"You'll know when you see them." The god looked directly at me. "Now I must go, there's a woman dying of cancer that must announce her love for her gardener." Then the god disappeared in an eruption of flaming heart candies.  
I looked over Lexie's shoulder at the map. "There's a bridge a few blocks down that will take us across the bridge." I informed.  
"Do we have money for a cab?" Lexie looked back at Ellie, who was still shivering.  
"Depends, do they have free cabs? I only have five dollars after those bus tickets." She answered. "Of which, you will repay me.  
"Gods damn it..." cursed Lexie. "Let's start walking" she paused. "And you stole the money in the first place!"


	15. I will go almost anywhere

Well, good news first. We found the Caldecott tunnel. Ellie, Lexie and I had almost gotten hit by a semi-truck crossing the bridge from San Francisco but there we were, standing at the side of the Road looking toward the maintenance door to the tunnel at something that surprised the three of us more than any monster ever had.

Three male kids in heavy golden armor stood guard in front of the door. Each one carried a pike in one hand and an enormous, rectangular shield in the other. Each shield had a slightly different image but one theme was a constant, a golden eagle. What really scared me was that they were wearing the same purple colored shirts as Octavian was in my nightmares.

"I think we've found what Eros was talking about." Ellie said bluntly as she strained to not shiver. She was still not use to the bay area cold nights and clutched her jacket tightly. We were hiding behind a large pair of boulders that lined the highway. Luckily it was still about three in the morning so they couldn't see our heads poking over the rocks.

"You're the veteran Demigod here Ellie, you know who these kids are?" Asked my sister, who was obviously much more comfortable in the cold. She held her bow in her left hand and was ready with a modified arrow she called a "flash" arrow for if we were spotted.

"No, the only other group of demigods I know of are the hunters." She answered. "And they don't accept mem."

"Well, I think we should see if they are friendly. I'm going to go talk to-" I stopped my sister from standing up. I didn't want to risk her getting captured and tortured like in my nightmare. "What now?!" She seemed irritated by me pulling her to the ground.

"Don't go! I recognise these kids." I felt my brotherly instincts kick in. "They have Austin and his team. If you go running up to them, there is a good chance you'll end up captured too!"

"What do you mean you know them? You barely just found out what you really are!" Asked Ellie.

"I... I had a dream, I saw people dressed just liked them and I think they had Austin, he has blonde hair correct? Kinda short?" Lexie nodded. "They had him had few others and were taking them to some sort of prison."

"Well, we need to get past them then. If they are past that door or there is a clue to finding them, I can't let it slip by!" My sister was more than determined to find this guy, I could only hope she would do the same for me. She set her weapon down and started to think. A few moments passed before she said anything. "Sean, you said that there is a good chance I could get captured Right?"

I nodded. "But if you are thinking what I think you are thinking, there's a solid chance they might kill you outright. They didn't seem to friendly with people like us in my nightmare."

"Well, I don't see you coming up with any better ideas." She stood up from behind our bolder and placed everything she was carrying on the ground other than her sword and bow. "If they capture me I need you to be at my back."

"What if I talk to them?" I offered.

"No. If things go wrong, whoever is talking to them will be at the center of the fight." She passed me her bow and her two of modified arrows. "If something goes wrong, aim at their feet." I looked at the tips of the arrows and noticed they weren't regular arrowheads. Instead of a metal tip, a smokey glass capsule containing a green gas.

"Got it." I hoped that I hadn't forgotten Ellie's archery instructions.

"Leave your backpack here, if things go awry we're going to need to run. Fast." Advised Ellie. We both slipped our packs off and rested them next to my sister's.

Before we continued toward the guards I noticed Lexie slip a small, paper square out of her coat. It was a photo. I couldn't see what it was of because after looking at it for a second, she slipped it back into her pocket. "Let's move."

~~~•••~~~•••~~~

I pointed to a hole in the chain-link fence that separated us from the highway, and the maintenance door. Lexie told Ellie and I to stay concealed under the concrete retaining wall unless fighting started. Surprise would be on our side.

I peeked over the side as I watched my sister climb through the hole and cautiously cross the empty highway. She raised her hands in the air when they noticed her.

The tallest of the trio waited until she was across then began to talk to her calmly, like Lexie had when she told me I was a demigod. "A new arriv-" he stopped as he noticed the bronze sword strapped to her belt. "Octavian warned us about you." His tone transferred from calm and collected, to agitated. He lowered his pike at her and ordered her to drop her sword.

Now, my sister being who she is, she refused to disarm herself and backed up so that the trio had their backs to us. That was when I released the arrow.

I immediately knew why they were called "flash" arrows. The second that the glass capsule shattered against the hard concrete, a flash so bright that I had to cover my eyes with my arm. Luckily the road was clear when I released the arrow or someone would have certainly crashed.

The second that the flash dissipated both Ellie and I both bolted across the road with our swords drawn. Turns out, we weren't needed, Lexie had anticipated the flash and averted her eyes then used her hands to smash two of the guards' head together like stooges. The last one, she took him by the helmet and launched him dizzily into the concrete wall.

"Quick, pull them inside!" Ordered Ellie sheathing her sword and pointing to a set of headlights that were speeding down the highway. It would probably be a little difficult to explain why we were standing over three unconscious teens in golden armor.

Gods they were heavy! I dragged the center one by his hands toward the door. I quickly dropped one of his arms and opened the door once it was within reach then we all hurried inside with our unconscious... friends.


	16. To feel like I belong

"Well, what's the plan now?" Breathed Ellie.

I looked down the corridor we had entered. We were narrowly squeezed between two solid, unpainted concrete walls. A series of dull ceiling lights flickered every few meters until stopping at a second metal door.

I heard a painful groan come from beneath me. I looked down at the guy who I had just dragged inside. He couldn't have been more than a year older than me. I noticed the golden emblem on his purple shirt. "Camp Jupiter? Lexie, isn't that the latin form of Zeus?"

"Yes." She answered quickly but didn't stop as she began stripping the shirts off our three unconscious _friends_.

"Umm... Lex? What are you doing?" Asked Ellie.

"Well we need to tie them up somehow!" She quickly tossed me one of the purple t-shirts and ordered me to tear it into strips.

Once I had cut the cloth into several strips I handed my pile to Lexie, she quickly set to work tying the three up against an electrical conduit. While that was happening, Ellie and I collected their pikes and placed them out of reach.

"I like these spears" commented Ellie as she ran her finger along it's golden tip.

"You just like gold." My sister had finished with the guards and was now standing next to me.

Ellie shrugged. "Well gold _is_ for winners. I think I'll keep it."

After taking a moment to catch our breath, we all cautiously moved toward the metal door. Ellie's left hand slid between my fingers as Lexie slowly pushed the door open a crack and peeked through.

"Holy Zeus!" Lexie cursed as she pushed it completely open and revealed an enormous valley.

The sun was starting to rise to the east and at the center of the valley was series of buildings that resembled a military barracks. Farther down a stone road was a small grouping of stone white buildings with a central plaza. Dividing us from the buildings was a small river that rushed with sparkling white rapids.

What was even more surprising than the valley and river (and its surprising enough to see a flowing river in California) was the enormous colosseum just outside the farthest cluster of buildings.

"How is this _not_ on a map?" I asked. "This has to be visible by aircraft!"

"Maybe not." Answered Ellie. "The mist can do strange things, keep mortals from seeing the most obvious things to us."

"Like the trap you just stumbled into?"

The three of us froze solid as we looked to our left. I cursed as I recognised the guy who spoke.

Octavian stood in front of a phalanx of soldiers. Each of the soldiers wore golden armor and on their helmet was a purple roman style plume that reminded me of the Trojan Marching band, which now that I think of it, should change their uniforms to something more greek.

Octavian signalled and as if on cue, all eight members of the phalanx lowered their lances at us.

"Oh this is just as I prophesized!" He cheered as he ripped a stuffed animal off of his belt and cut off the head using a golden knife. The coffee addict look he had seemed to go on overdrive and he shook for a moment. "Yes!" He cheered. "I've got some good news for you three, death my gladiatorial combat!"

"You don't have the authority!" Spoke one of the phalanx members. I recognised him from somewhere but I couldn't pinpoint it. "Only the Praetors can give such a sentence!"

"Quiet centurion!" Snapped Octavian. "I prophesied it and it _will_ happen! It's the demand of the gods! Don't worry though, we will have time to know each other first."

Octavian paused for a moment glaring at me as if he remembered me. "Artogious, you have the honors." He smiled.

I heard a deep grunt behind me and felt a heavy hand grab me by the head. Damn it, I had forgotten to watch my own back. The last thing I felt was my skull strike the stone road that I had been standing on.


	17. Chapter 17

_**An: I'm going to deviate slightly from what happened in Blood of Olympus, at least as far as you know, nothing major, just a fight that wasn't depicted in the book.**_

 _I was standing at the center of an enormous group of teenagers all dressed in bright orange camp half-blood t-shirts, same as me. We were all standing in a phalanx holding large wooden shields and wielded six foot lances. Something about this felt familiar. I looked to my left and saw Lexie and Malcolm, to my right I saw Matthew and and Amanda._

 _My bronze chestplate and helmet grew heavy as I felt myself jump with surprise at the sound of a war horn. I looked forward at a hoard of teens the same age as most of us in heavy golden armor and wielding short swords with even bigger shields than ours. I realized they were dressed the same as the people that Octavian had ambushed us with._

 _"Hoplítes pros ta emprós!" Ordered Malcolm in greek as he raised his spear above our group. I translated what he said as "Hoplites forward!"_

 _All at once, we began to march forward. "Hoplítes káto lónches!" Lower spears!_

 _Against my will, I locked shields with Lexie and Amanda then the entire line of thirty or so of us half bloods lowered our spears and continued our advance on the also advancing adversaries._

 _"Legio formationes!" Ordered a brown haired teenager in heavier armor than the rest as he flourished his short sword. I recognized the order as latin but I couldn't translate it._

 _A moment later, the horde of what I assumed to be Romans changed from a wall of enormous shields similar to our formation to a different formation. I remembered it as a wedge formation instantly. A tactic used by the Roman Empire to combat infantry a couple thousand years ago. The formation is recognized for it's ability to divide an opposing force and picking off both halves._

 _The moment our two forces collided I hurt. Being near the center of our own phalanx meant that I also received the brunt of the Roman charge. My spear was snapped in half almost immediately when it was chopped by a sword. I had to drop it. The pressure being pushed against my shield also prevented me from drawing my sword._

 _This also meant that I got a good view of the Roman boy that had given the wedge order. Short, brown hair, sharp, golden eyes and a pointy chin. I recognized him, Conner Nealson, my stepbrother._

 _ **An: I'm going to deviate slightly from what happened in Blood of Olympus, at least as far as you know, nothing major, just a fight that wasn't depicted in the book.**_

 _I was standing at the center of an enormous group of teenagers all dressed in bright orange camp half-blood t-shirts, same as me. We were all standing in a phalanx holding large wooden shields and wielded six foot lances. Something about this felt familiar. I looked to my left and saw Lexie and Malcolm, to my right I saw Matthew and and Amanda._

 _My bronze chestplate and helmet grew heavy as I felt myself jump with surprise at the sound of a war horn. I looked forward at a hoard of teens the same age as most of us in heavy golden armor and wielding short swords with even bigger shields than ours. I realized they were dressed the same as the people that Octavian had ambushed us with._

 _"Hoplítes pros ta emprós!" Ordered Malcolm in greek as he raised his spear above our group. I translated what he said as "Hoplites forward!"_

 _All at once, we began to march forward. "Hoplítes káto lónches!" Lower spears!_

 _Against my will, I locked shields with Lexie and Amanda then the entire line of thirty or so of us half bloods lowered our spears and continued our advance on the also advancing adversaries._

 _"Legio formationes!" Ordered a brown haired teenager in heavier armor than the rest as he flourished his short sword. I recognized the order as latin but I couldn't translate it._

 _A moment later, the horde of what I assumed to be Romans changed from a wall of enormous shields similar to our formation to a different formation. I remembered it as a wedge formation instantly. A tactic used by the Roman Empire to combat infantry a couple thousand years ago. The formation is recognized for it's ability to divide an opposing force and picking off both halves._

 _The moment our two forces collided I hurt. Being near the center of our own phalanx meant that I also received the brunt of the Roman charge. My spear was snapped in half almost immediately when it was chopped by a sword. I had to drop it. The pressure being pushed against my shield also prevented me from drawing my sword._

 _This also meant that I got a good view of the Roman boy that had given the wedge order. Short, brown hair, sharp, golden eyes and a pointy chin. I recognized him, Conner Nealson, my stepbrother._

 _My dream blurred for a moment and the battle had shifted from two different formations had scattered into a frenzy of one on one skirmishes. One thing was certain though, we were out numbered._

 _Amanda and I were fighting side by side, me with a bronze short sword and my youngest sister with her spear. I looked around but I couldn't find Lexie, Matthew, or Malcolm, in fact I couldn't see Conner either. Maybe he was just part of this strange dream. 'No' I thought. 'This is all too familiar.'_

 _I turned to see Amanda smack some Roman she had been fighting across the temple with the base of her spear and send him crashing to the ground unconscious. At the same time, I blocked a violent slash from a Roman girl with the remaining half of my shield and attempted to strike low at her knees with my sword but she parried my attack._

 _That's when I heard the scream. Quickly, I bashed the girl with my splintered shield and swung the pommel of my sword toward her helmet, which struck with a satisfying "clang!" Then she too collapsed to the ground. I heard the scream again and I turned toward it again._

 _"Alexis!" I heard Amanda. She dropped her broken shield and took off._

 _The dream shifted again. Lexie was laying on the ground, the only move she made was short breaths. I noticed blood was soaking her orange T-shirt and a deep cut had been made across her cheek. I was standing over Lexie defensively holding my sword and pointing it at someone._

 _"Your Praetor ordered you to stand down!" I heard myself yell._

 _"Your kind poisoned her mind Sean! That_ _ **child**_ _of Minerva that calls herself Annabeth is most to blame!" Bellowed Conner's voice."Octavian is our new leader, you greeks need to pay for what you did to Rome!"_

 _He stabbed at me with his short sword but I dodged past it. I didn't retaliate, much to my own relief. How could I fight someone I had practically been raised with. Maybe didn't get along with, but raised with._

 _"Conner, we didn't do anything to you! If we don't work together those monsters are going to kill us!"_

 _"Your warship fired on New Rome! You wanted retribution for us taking your precious statue!" He pointed his blade toward an enormous golden statue of my mother standing at the top of half blood hill. "Octavian told us it all!"_

 _'Was that always there?' I remember thinking as I turned to face it. That was my first and Last mistake. While I was turned around, I felt it._

 _If I had to describe being stabbed on a scale from one to ten, it would probably be about a thirteen, right below being set on fire by an exploding popcorn maker, which sucks and above hit by a bus._

 _"I'm sorry Sean, this is how it had to end." Conner said as he withdrew his sharp blade from my back. Then, it ended._

 _"My son" I heard a woman's voice say softly in my ear._

 _Wherever I was, it was bright, so I was forced to squint until my eyes adjusted. I rolled over from my chest to my back. My entire body ached like I had been pummeled by a back of Cyclopes._

 _"Sean... I'm sorry this happened to you." Cried the voice. She appeared above me. She had solid gray eyes and long, black hair. It was Athena, my mother. She had changed out of the white linens she had been wearing in my dream a few days before and was wearing a tan military jacket over a shirt displaying a peace sign, which I found kind of ironic, but when your mother is a thousands of year old goddess you can't exactly insult her fashion._

 _"I'm so proud of you both." I looked to my left to see Lexie lying next to me peacefully asleep. "But... you... you both died."_

 _'Died!' I screamed in my head. 'Had Conner killed us both?!'_

 _"Zeus plans to undo all of these deaths... and it relieves me that you will live on but... but I fear the rest of his plan."_

 _I was unable to speak._

 _"He's going to wipe everyone's memories in hopes of neither side looking for retribution but what if... oh for my own sake, what am I doing, you aren't going to remember any of this." So the previous dream had been a memory! Not a prediction!_

 _She ran her hands through my hair softly. "I'm sorry neither of you will ever truly know how much I care for each of you." Then my dream finally ended and the pain started._

I woke with an enormous headache. Being knocked unconscious via Three stooges act tends to do that to you. Blindly, I looked around the darkly lit room. I noticed a single candle glowing on a wooden table.

"Oh gods..." I cried, knowing what would happen next. I tried to move but my hands were tied down, I couldn't move from my chair. This is where Octavian had tortured Lexie!

Painfully, I looked to my left. And as I dreaded, my sister lay in her chair. Just as I remembered, she was looking rough. Her face was battered and bruised. A long gash had been cut just below her eye and drops of blood had dried from the gash to the collar of her torn shirt.

"Lexie!" I groaned in a low whisper. "Please Lex! Say something!" She didn't answer. "Come on Sis!"

"So, she's your sister hmm?" Chuckled Octavian as he stepped into the candle light. "Can't say I see the resemblance very much."

"What did you do to her you swine!" I spat. "Where is Ellie?!"

"Just some small talk, nothing too major. I really think we hit it off. As for your other friend, she's rotting down in the cells."

I noticed he held a golden knife in his hand still. Maybe I could take it from him and cut us free. How far would I get carrying Lexie? How many would be chasing after us? What about Ellie? Where was she? I would never find her if I was killed.

"Your sister claims that your mother is Minerva, is that true?"

'Minerva, definitely a Latin god but what was the translation. Athena! Duh, I blamed my slow thought process on my possible concussion.' My head was still buzzing from the impact with the ground. "Whatever you say, say nothing." I recited remembering an old Irish song I liked.

He slapped me with the flat of his blade creating a cut on my cheek. I could feel blood dripping onto my shirt. "Tell me you graecus! Is your mother Minerva!"

"For if you know who should hear you, you know what you'll get." He slapped me with his blade again but I ignored him. Maybe if I stalled long enough he would get frustrated and try being a little more diplomatic. After all, I did remember him believing we were invading the camp, so he certainly wouldn't kill me while I could still have information. "Whatever you say, say nothing when you mention such and such!" Stall until I figure a way out of here.

"Graecus stop with that racket or when your sister wakes... wait, what I would do to her, she won't wake up."

' _Damn'_ I thought as I silenced my chant. 'Well, that plans shot.'

"Now that's better." Octavian muttered as he held his blade over the candle. He grinned as the dried blood that coated the blade began to flake off from the heat. "Now, Minerva, yes or no?"

I nodded. No point in antagonizing him if he was going to threaten Lexie. He had won the battle of wills.

"Alright then, even your own gods are oath breakers than. _That_ goddess swore an oath to never bed a man." He spat at me with disgust before he cautiously touched his blade and winced from the scalding metal. "Now, to real business. How many others are there lurking around, waiting to strike?"

"Excuse me?!"

"Don't play stupid with me greek! I prophesied a greek warship attacking this very location less than a year ago?!"

"We have no war ships!" I answered quickly.

"I told you not to lie to me!" Octavian grabbed me by the wrist and pressed down hard with the flat of his blade. The fire had made the blade excruciatingly hot as it pressed against my skin.

I screamed in agony as he shifted the blade so it sliced along the charred skin only making the pain exponentially worse. The only good part of the heat was that it cauterized the wound and prevented my arm from bleeding. I think that had been intentional, blood would only cause a mess.

I heard a wooden door be kicked open behind Octavian. As the light poured in, a female figure wearing a dark purple, almost black, cloak stormed into the room. Part of me hoped it was Ellie, but I knew that wouldn't be the case.

"Praetor Reyna! How good of you to join me" cackled Octavian.

"You insect. You do _not_ have the authority to interrogate any of our prisoners Octavian!" She swatted Octavian to the side and waved the two guards that had been standing at the doorway inside. "If not for the insight of Centurion Nealson, I might not have known about our new guests."

' _Holy Zeus! That must have been Conner who interrupted Octavian before I was knocked out!'_ I thought. I almost dreaded seeing my step-brother again. But then again, if he hadn't told the Praetor, Octavian may have continued to interrogate me.

"They fired on three members of my cohort, then they invaded our territory. I am within my-"

"You are detaining three of their people Octavian, of course they would come after them!" Reyna snapped. "Get out of my sight."

Octavian quickly skulked out of the room after grabbing his knife.

"Sorry about that" said Reyna once he was gone. She went over to my sister and checked her pulse. She nodded to me which told me Lexie was alright. "He is right about one thing though. You did attack three of my legionaries."

"They drew their weapons fi-"

"Doesn't matter. Octavian _will_ make the senate believe you attacked first. He has too many loyal followers here and your actions have only solidified his claims."

"Then what is going to happen?"

"You and your companions will be brought before the senate. For now though, it's off to the cells to join your fellow greeks." She turned to the two guards behind her. "Centurion Nealson, Centurion Thatcher, escort them to the cells and see to it that they are fed." A moment later, she disappeared out the door.

Conner unlocked my restraints as Centurion Thatcher untied my sister and slung her over his shoulder. Luckily neither of them were wearing armor or Lexie could have been injured further.

"Alex, could you take the girl back to the cells without me? I want to have a chat with this one first."

"Sure thing Conner" the girls voice agreed. "You told Reyna 'cause you wanted to have first crack at our new guests huh? Well, mop up the blood when you're done."

"Sure thing!" He responded before giving me a reassuring look that told me he wouldn't hurt me. He waited until Alex was gone before he started to speak.

"Sooo... greek? Great..." he stammered, obviously just as shocked to be seeing me. "That wouldn't happen to have been your sister?"

"How did you know?"

"I don't know, I just feel like I've seen her before."

I tensed up. I resisted the urge to scream _'Because you killed her!'_ No, there was no way that he remembered that... right? "Maybe you met her at school once, that's where she found me."

"Yeah, I'm sure that's it." He answered skeptically.

"So... who's your dad?"

"Liber, so you can imagine how uncomfortable I am near cells."

"Yeah... I think." Liber is the Latin god of freedom, I guess that's why we have the word liberty. "Listen, thanks for standing up for us back there."

"Well, if I hadn't, I would have had to tell your father that you were... you know."

"Dead?" The foremost thing on my mind.

"Yeah. And I can't stand to see people imprisoned for such stupid reasons."

"So you'll help us get out?"

"I'll do what I can."

"Thanks man, I definitely owe you now."

"Start paying me back when out get out of here." He pointed toward the door. "You'll need to stay in front of me, you are a prisoner."

 _My dream blurred for a moment and the battle had shifted from two different formations had scattered into a frenzy of one on one skirmishes. One thing was certain though, we were out numbered._

 _Amanda and I were fighting side by side, me with a bronze short sword and my youngest sister with her spear. I looked around but I couldn't find Lexie, Matthew, or Malcolm, in fact I couldn't see Conner either. Maybe he was just part of this strange dream. 'No' I thought. 'This is all too familiar.'_

 _I turned to see Amanda smack some Roman she had been fighting across the temple with the base of her spear and send him crashing to the ground unconscious. At the same time, I blocked a violent slash from a Roman girl with the remaining half of my shield and attempted to strike low at her knees with my sword but she parried my attack._

 _That's when I heard the scream. Quickly, I bashed the girl with my splintered shield and swung the pommel of my sword toward her helmet, which struck with a satisfying "clang!" Then she too collapsed to the ground. I heard the scream again and I turned toward it again._

 _"Alexis!" I heard Amanda. She dropped her broken shield and took off._

 _The dream shifted again. Lexie was laying on the ground, the only move she made was short breaths. I noticed blood was soaking her orange T-shirt and a deep cut had been made across her cheek. I was standing over Lexie defensively holding my sword and pointing it at someone._

 _"Your Praetor ordered you to stand down!" I heard myself yell._

 _"Your kind poisoned her mind Sean! That_ _ **child**_ _of Minerva that calls herself Annabeth is most to blame!" Bellowed Conner's voice."Octavian is our new leader, you greeks need to pay for what you did to Rome!"_

 _He stabbed at me with his short sword but I dodged past it. I didn't retaliate, much to my own relief. How could I fight someone I had practically been raised with. Maybe didn't get along with, but raised with._

 _"Conner, we didn't do anything to you! If we don't work together those monsters are going to kill us!"_

 _"Your warship fired on New Rome! You wanted retribution for us taking your precious statue!" He pointed his blade toward an enormous golden statue of my mother standing at the top of half blood hill. "Octavian told us it all!"_

 _'Was that always there?' I remember thinking as I turned to face it. That was my first and Last mistake. While I was turned around, I felt it._

 _If I had to describe being stabbed on a scale from one to ten, it would probably be about a thirteen, right below being set on fire by an exploding popcorn maker, which sucks and above hit by a bus._

 _"I'm sorry Sean, this is how it had to end." Conner said as he withdrew his sharp blade from my back. Then, it ended._

 _"My son" I heard a woman's voice say softly in my ear._

 _Wherever I was, it was bright, so I was forced to squint until my eyes adjusted. I rolled over from my chest to my back. My entire body ached like I had been pummeled by a back of Cyclopes._

 _"Sean... I'm sorry this happened to you." Cried the voice. She appeared above me. She had solid gray eyes and long, black hair. It was Athena, my mother. She had changed out of the white linens she had been wearing in my dream a few days before and was wearing a tan military jacket over a shirt displaying a peace sign, which I found kind of ironic, but when your mother is a thousands of year old goddess you can't exactly insult her fashion._

 _"I'm so proud of you both." I looked to my left to see Lexie lying next to me peacefully asleep. "But... you... you both died."_

 _'Died!' I screamed in my head. 'Had Conner killed us both?!'_

 _"Zeus plans to undo all of these deaths... and it relieves me that you will live on but... but I fear the rest of his plan."_

 _I was unable to speak._

 _"He's going to wipe everyone's memories in hopes of neither side looking for retribution but what if... oh for my own sake, what am I doing, you aren't going to remember any of this." So the previous dream had been a memory! Not a prediction!_

 _She ran her hands through my hair softly. "I'm sorry neither of you will ever truly know how much I care for each of you." Then my dream finally ended and the pain started._

I woke with an enormous headache. Being knocked unconscious via Three stooges act tends to do that to you. Blindly, I looked around the darkly lit room. I noticed a single candle glowing on a wooden table.

"Oh gods..." I cried, knowing what would happen next. I tried to move but my hands were tied down, I couldn't move from my chair. This is where Octavian had tortured Lexie!

Painfully, I looked to my left. And as I dreaded, my sister lay in her chair. Just as I remembered, she was looking rough. Her face was battered and bruised. A long gash had been cut just below her eye and drops of blood had dried from the gash to the collar of her torn shirt.

"Lexie!" I groaned in a low whisper. "Please Lex! Say something!" She didn't answer. "Come on Sis!"

"So, she's your sister hmm?" Chuckled Octavian as he stepped into the candle light. "Can't say I see the resemblance very much."

"What did you do to her you swine!" I spat. "Where is Ellie?!"

"Just some small talk, nothing too major. I really think we hit it off. As for your other friend, she's rotting down in the cells."

I noticed he held a golden knife in his hand still. Maybe I could take it from him and cut us free. How far would I get carrying Lexie? How many would be chasing after us? What about Ellie? Where was she? I would never find her if I was killed.

"Your sister claims that your mother is Minerva, is that true?"

'Minerva, definitely a Latin god but what was the translation. Athena! Duh, I blamed my slow thought process on my possible concussion.' My head was still buzzing from the impact with the ground. "Whatever you say, say nothing." I recited remembering an old Irish song I liked.

He slapped me with the flat of his blade creating a cut on my cheek. I could feel blood dripping onto my shirt. "Tell me you graecus! Is your mother Minerva!"

"For if you know who should hear you, you know what you'll get." He slapped me with his blade again but I ignored him. Maybe if I stalled long enough he would get frustrated and try being a little more diplomatic. After all, I did remember him believing we were invading the camp, so he certainly wouldn't kill me while I could still have information. "Whatever you say, say nothing when you mention such and such!" Stall until I figure a way out of here.

"Graecus stop with that racket or when your sister wakes... wait, what I would do to her, she won't wake up."

' _Damn'_ I thought as I silenced my chant. 'Well, that plans shot.'

"Now that's better." Octavian muttered as he held his blade over the candle. He grinned as the dried blood that coated the blade began to flake off from the heat. "Now, Minerva, yes or no?"

I nodded. No point in antagonizing him if he was going to threaten Lexie. He had won the battle of wills.

"Alright then, even your own gods are oath breakers than. _That_ goddess swore an oath to never bed a man." He spat at me with disgust before he cautiously touched his blade and winced from the scalding metal. "Now, to real business. How many others are there lurking around, waiting to strike?"

"Excuse me?!"

"Don't play stupid with me greek! I prophesied a greek warship attacking this very location less than a year ago?!"

"We have no war ships!" I answered quickly.

"I told you not to lie to me!" Octavian grabbed me by the wrist and pressed down hard with the flat of his blade. The fire had made the blade excruciatingly hot as it pressed against my skin.

I screamed in agony as he shifted the blade so it sliced along the charred skin only making the pain exponentially worse. The only good part of the heat was that it cauterized the wound and prevented my arm from bleeding. I think that had been intentional, blood would only cause a mess.

I heard a wooden door be kicked open behind Octavian. As the light poured in, a female figure wearing a dark purple, almost black, cloak stormed into the room. Part of me hoped it was Ellie, but I knew that wouldn't be the case.

"Praetor Reyna! How good of you to join me" cackled Octavian.

"You insect. You do _not_ have the authority to interrogate any of our prisoners Octavian!" She swatted Octavian to the side and waved the two guards that had been standing at the doorway inside. "If not for the insight of Centurion Nealson, I might not have known about our new guests."

' _Holy Zeus! That must have been Conner who interrupted Octavian before I was knocked out!'_ I thought. I almost dreaded seeing my step-brother again. But then again, if he hadn't told the Praetor, Octavian may have continued to interrogate me.

"They fired on three members of my cohort, then they invaded our territory. I am within my-"

"You are detaining three of their people Octavian, of course they would come after them!" Reyna snapped. "Get out of my sight."

Octavian quickly skulked out of the room after grabbing his knife.

"Sorry about that" said Reyna once he was gone. She went over to my sister and checked her pulse. She nodded to me which told me Lexie was alright. "He is right about one thing though. You did attack three of my legionaries."

"They drew their weapons fi-"

"Doesn't matter. Octavian _will_ make the senate believe you attacked first. He has too many loyal followers here and your actions have only solidified his claims."

"Then what is going to happen?"

"You and your companions will be brought before the senate. For now though, it's off to the cells to join your fellow greeks." She turned to the two guards behind her. "Centurion Nealson, Centurion Thatcher, escort them to the cells and see to it that they are fed." A moment later, she disappeared out the door.

Conner unlocked my restraints as Centurion Thatcher untied my sister and slung her over his shoulder. Luckily neither of them were wearing armor or Lexie could have been injured further.

"Alex, could you take the girl back to the cells without me? I want to have a chat with this one first."

"Sure thing Conner" the girls voice agreed. "You told Reyna 'cause you wanted to have first crack at our new guests huh? Well, mop up the blood when you're done."

"Sure thing!" He responded before giving me a reassuring look that told me he wouldn't hurt me. He waited until Alex was gone before he started to speak.

"Sooo... greek? Great..." he stammered, obviously just as shocked to be seeing me. "That wouldn't happen to have been your sister?"

"How did you know?"

"I don't know, I just feel like I've seen her before."

I tensed up. I resisted the urge to scream _'Because you killed her!'_ No, there was no way that he remembered that... right? "Maybe you met her at school once, that's where she found me."

"Yeah, I'm sure that's it." He answered skeptically.

"So... who's your dad?"

"Liber, so you can imagine how uncomfortable I am near cells."

"Yeah... I think." Liber is the Latin god of freedom, I guess that's why we have the word liberty. "Listen, thanks for standing up for us back there."

"Well, if I hadn't, I would have had to tell your father that you were... you know."

"Dead?" The foremost thing on my mind.

"Yeah. And I can't stand to see people imprisoned for such stupid reasons."

"So you'll help us get out?"

"I'll do what I can."

"Thanks man, I definitely owe you now."

"Start paying me back when out get out of here." He pointed toward the door. "You'll need to stay in front of me, you are a prisoner."


	18. Chapter 18

Conner led me down the hallway at sword point. He made a show of it too. Every few feet he would jab at me with the point of his sword while ordering me to "speed up or I'll treat you like all Graecus dogs should be!"

The female Centurion Alex gave him a surprised look when we rounded the corner to see the cells. "Took it easy on him?" She asked. "Quite a bit o' self control you've got then."

"Yeah, changed my mind." Conner grabbed the keys out of her grip and opened one of the cells. "In you go" he ordered with a swift wave of his blade.

He slammed the cell door shut once I was inside and motioned Alex to follow him out of the room. Saying he would return with the food he had been ordered to give us.

I jumped as I felt two arms wrap around me. I pushed back then lunged forward to avoid the unexpected grip.

"Easy, it's me" promised Ellie as I turned around. I let her hug me again and wrapped my arms around her. "I'm glad you're alright."

"Same, I didn't know what Octavian did to you."

"So that's what his name is!" She slowly let go of me and sat down on a metal bunk. "Good, I wanted to know his name when I kicked his rear end into the penalty box." She punched her open palm angrily.

I looked to the other side of the cell and noticed two people standing over Lexie on one of the other bunks.

"Austin's seeing to your sister. Now let me check that burn." She pointed to my arm.

"I'm alright" I lied. It actually stung worse than I thought was possible but I didn't want her to worry.

I moved past Ellie and towards my sister. A blond boy with short hair and a calming but slender face looked up from my sister at me. I knew he had to be Austin. "Are you her brother?" I nodded. "Good, she asked if you were alright."

"Is she?" I asked with a nod.

"She's got a concussion" answered Austin. "As for these cuts, I'll do what I can. My healing magic isn't very strong here." He turned away from me and returned to my sister.

"How long have you two been locked up in here?" I asked.

"Since Austin called camp" explained the girl to Austin's left. Her hair was long, curly and fiery red. She couldn't have been older than twelve and wore a torn, yellow " _Avengers_ " shirt along with ripped blue jeans. "A week, I think."

"That's quite a long time to be locked in a cell" Ellie responded. "Wait, I don't recognise you, what's your name?"

"Aasha" she answered quickly.

"I found her in San Luis running from a flock of Stygian birds" answered Austin solemnly. "I wish Charlie and Ryan were here, healing is more their thing..."

Austin's Other quest-mates mustn't have made it through the week. Ellie rubbed Austin's back apologetically. "I'm sorry bud, they..." She didn't have the words to say. Instead, Austin shook her off and returned to focusing on Lexie again.

Conner returned alone a few minutes later with a stack of rock hard bread rolls on a tray and slid it under the cell door. He apologised for the poor quality food and mentioned that Reyna was convening the their senate for "our trial."

"I'll be back in an hour to bring you to the forum." He promised before leaving the room again.

"Hey Conner, can do me a favor?" I asked.

"We left our gear near the highway, can you get it for us?"

"It'll be waiting for you when you come home."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence."


	19. Chapter 19

"I now convene this meeting of the Senate" boomed Reyna's voice. My blindfold was removed but my handcuffs and gag remained. As my eyes adjusted to the light filled hall, I realised how large the Roman senate­house truly was. It reminded me of a large, college lecture hall. Several rows of filled seats carved the hall into a dome shape with a pair of thones positioned at it's center. Several people in white robes were scattered through the crowd and each one seemed to eye us with more intensity than the others. Next to Reyna, I spotted a blonde boy in the same style armor and cloak. "He must be Jason" I thought to myself. I noticed he was watching us and turned away. I looked to my left at Lexie, who was held on her feet by Austyn. They were the only two that didn't have their hands cuffed together. She seemed a little out of it still from being beaten and abused by Octavian but atleast she was awake now. Lexie gave me a pained look and turned back to Reyna. I looked to my right at Ellie and noticed she was watching the crowd ahead of us with an angry glare. "At this time, I call upon the ten senators of our legion to­­" "Cut it with the formalities Reyna" spoke Jason. "This is an emergency session and nobody is in the mood." "Fine" beamed Reyna. "I present the greeks that have been under our care for the past several days." A senator in the top layer of the seats heckled us as the Praetor pointed in our direction. Another called us "Filthy Graecus slime" and threw an empty Cactus Cooler can in our direction. "Romans I demand Oder!" Boomed Jason from his seat and the senators immediately shuffled back into their seats and sat quietly at attention. "These five are demigods, like us. Only difference is that they are children of Greek gods. Don't they deserve our respect?" Apparently his calm demeanor could change drastically to that of a drill sergeant. He kind of reminded me of Malcolm in that aspect. "No. They don't." Octavian stepped down from the seating and stood in front of Jason. "Three of these scum attacked our own people" he stated flatly. "Without provocation." "Only because we had two of their own locked in a cell." "Beside the point" recoiled Octavian. "Those two." He pointed at Aasha and Austin. "Are scouts for their invasion!" "I'm growing tired of this story of yours Octavian" cautioned Reyna. "Apollo blessed me with a vision of a greek warship attacking this very location!" He explained loudly to the other senators. "Fires burned throughout these street. I even foresaw an army of centaurs and other nasty beasts charging our gates." He looked to me specifically and said "these greeks have allied with monsters to wipe us from existence." "That's enough Octavian!" Reyna and Jason seemed to grow uneasy as the Romans stood from their seats and focused on Octavian's story. "You see what our 'leaders' plan to do about it? Sit idle and coddle the enemy while their comrades prepare!" "These accusations are unfounded!" Yelled a female senator at the center. "Shut up Morgan! The existence of them proves his accusations!" Argued another. Octavian stepped closer to me. "Especially these two." He grabbed Lexie by the collar and yanked her roughly to the ground, then grabbed me by the arm and threw me down next to her. Since my hands were tied behind my back, there was nothing I could do to stop myself from face planting into the hard, stone floor. "Children of Minerva" he spat as several romans gagged with disgust. Hard not to take personal huh? "I call for the execution of these greeks immediately. To defend the honor of Minerva's oath and to protect ourselves. " "Holy Jupiter Octavian! You can't seriously encourage this course of action! I will not stand by it." Jason stood up and helped my sister to her feet and lifted me up by the arm. "These are people too!" "I won't have any part in this action either, we are better than this." Reyna joined Jason's side and glared at Octavian. "Wrong. They are threats. This is how a proper leader would deal with such an issue." Octavian stepped toward the senate. "I know where I vote, all for the execution of these five demigods in the colosseum by combat, say aye!" One by one, the senators made their votes that would decide our lives. One by one, Octavian got his way. Either out of fear, hatred or just being bought out by that slimeball, our fate was sealed. It was then that I promised myself, if I ever got the chance, I would end his miserable life. "Well, my dear Praetors, it appears the people of rome have made their choice. Death it is, and what a proper choice." I could see his triumphant smirk that spread across his face like a plague. "Am I to assume that this meeting is over?" Jason nodded and ordered the room cleared of everyone but us Greeks... and our guards. "I wish I could have stopped that slimeball. Centurion Nealson, untie them." "What exactly just happened? Are we going to actually be killed?" Cried Aasha as she was freed. "Not... not exactly" started Jason. "We don't just outright kill people here. You five will be given a chance to save yourselves." "How exactly?" I asked grabbing Ellie's hand in an attempt to calm myself down, just as much as to calm her down. "Its not like we got a trial exactly." "Trial by combat. In the coliseum. Like a gladiator." He started to look each of us over. "I'll have one of our healers come take a look at you. I don't approve of what is happening, and I'll do my best to give you five a fighting chance." "Thank you" Austin was the last to speak before we were re­handcuffed, blindfolded and led back to our cell.


	20. Chapter 20

"Armor up graecus" spat Centurion Alex. She and Conner had been the ones who had escorted us to the arena's armory. "You barely deserve the shirts on your backs, it's beyond me why the praetors demanded you have a fair chance."

"Each of you get a leather cuirass and a shield" added my step-brother. "The weapons we found you with will be waiting for you at the entrance." He sounded much more reserved and stiff than he usually did. The boy I grew up with had always been more enthusiastic and free-spirited.

I took one look at the leather armor we had each been given and knew they were junk. The strips that held the front and back together were frayed and poorly knotted, each had a dark stain of blood in one corner or as other, and mine even had parts where it seemed to have been sliced through. I knew this wasn't going to do much more than protect me from an insect bite but it was better than nothing.

Lexie came up next to me once I had finished tying down the loose pieces of my "armor" with plastic zip ties. "You doing alright?"

"I'll be fine." I quickly began fumbling with my shield's arm straps. Lexie grabbed me by the wrist and strapped it to my arm with familiar grace. "I'm more worried about you, a few hours ago you could barely stand" I added.

"I'm tougher than you give me credit for."

"Lexie, we've only known eachother for a short while but I know when my sister is dodging a question."

"I'll live. Just do the same, please."

"We've got eachothers back right?"

"Of course, you _are_ my brother."

"No more doubts?" She gave me a quick nod and returned to Austin's side.

I noticed Ellie helping Aasha with her armor and stepped beside her. "It's almost time."

"Don't sound so grim. We're going to beat this."

"What makes you so certain?!" Asked Aasha. Her voice told me how scared she was.

"Because I don't come in second."

"That's my Ellie, ever the victor." I was actually feeling a little more at ease knowing how certain she was that we would survive this.

"You know it. I can't wait to kick that Octavian straight over a goal post."

"Is everything a game to you?"Aasha asked with shock. For a moment I thought I saw a tear drip down her face. It was then that I noticed Aasha's cloudy gray eyes, it was astounding how much her face resembled my sisters actually. Minus the blonde hair anyway.

"No, but this is. Arena battles used to be considered sports, ever seen a wrestling match?"

"No. And people don't usually die in games."

"Say what you will, it works for me. Now go get your shield ready." She sent her away with a gentle flick of the wrist toward Austin and Lexie.

"Cut the chatter!" Ordered Alex as she slammed open one of the wooden doors on the far side of the room. "All of you, arena. Now!" She waved her spear toward the open door.

Lexie and Austin were holding hands as they stepped out the door first. Aasha nervously treaded on their tracks with Alex prodding her with the point of her spear.

Ellie and I were just passed the door when I felt Conner's hand pat me on the shoulder and heard him whisper "Goodluck." Then I felt him shove me through outside. As well-intended as he sounded, it felt like he was slipping a blade in my back. Again.

If it wasn't for Ellie's quick reflexes I would have landed face first in the dirt. The intensity of the sunlight burned my eyes as I looked around the arena. The door we had entered through had already been shut tight.

The arena was enormous. Clay walls several feet high surrounded the circular pit with two entrances on either side, one was the one we entered from, the other was on the opposite side.

Above us, past the walls, were stadium seats filled to the brim with eager Romans ready to watch the "graecus scum die!" At Least that's what Octavian was chanting from his seat.

Five weapons were placed on a stone slab at the arena's center. One for each of us. Lexie and Ellie grabbed their swords from the slab. Both seemed slightly more at ease now that they had _their_ weapons back, not that I have any room to talk. I grabbed my saber off the slab and unsheathed it immediately. It's bronze glow felt familiar even though I'd only had it a couple days.

Austin wielded a small dagger and Aasha seemed to have been given a spear similar to the one that Ellie had "commandeered" from the Roman guard when we first arrived.

"By the will of the Gods and the decision of the Senate, I offer these Greeks their last chance to prove themselves before Jupiter and Olympus!" Declared Reyna from her golden throne a few meters to the left of Octavian. "If they survive all three rounds of combat they will be set free and allowed to return home."

"Furthermore" added Jason. " _Any_ roman that undermines this decision _will_ suffer the same fate that they are about to endure." He seemed to glare straight at Octavian as he spoke. "Let the trial begin! Open the gate!" A mix of cheers and heckling echoed through the colosseum despite both Praetor's obvious displeasure with the current event unfolding.

"Aasha have you ever handled a spear before?" Asked Lexie as we all turned toward the slowly opening door.

"No." A sharply taloned lashed out from the doorway and began to pull it open. "But I Austin says I'm a quick study" she quickly added.

"Austin, Ellie, form up next to me. Sean, Aasha, you two are the newest ones here, you watch our backs" ordered my sister. She raised her shield ready to fight with me at her back just like we had discussed. A moment later the door was flung open and out came three foul creatures. "Harpies. Great."

The three ragged feathered women scrambled around us. One of them with black feathers and extremely sharp looking claws strafed to my left but was prodded back by Aasha's spear. This gave the other two the opening they needed.

During the two seconds that Aasha was distracted by the black harpy, the green one converged on Aasha. I reached to pull her back but was too slow. The feathered monster's claws dragged across the girl's thigh as I jerked her away.

Aasha landed against my chest almost causing me to collapse to the ground from our combined weight.

I thrust my saber at the monster while it was still recovering from it's previous lunge. My blade pierced it's feather coated shoulder causing the creature to shriek in pain and the harpy's side to begin disintegrating like a sand castle in the wind. A moment later, all that remained was a golden pile of sand.

I quickly looked down at where the harpy had attacked her. Luckily it had only grazed her and her jeans took most of the hit, only a small trickle of blood dripped down her leg.

"Aasha, are you alright?" Austin asked after he and Lexie dispatched the last two Harpies.

It must have looked worse than it felt because she quickly stood up from against me and nodded to him with her spear at the ready. She rubbed where she had been hurt with her hand and put pressure on it causing blood to stain her fingers.

"Once we're out of here, Austin will get you patched up" Lexie assured her. She also had her own injury. Across my sister's cheek was a new scratch that hadn't been inflicted by Octavian the day before.

"That is _if_ we get out of here" Austin added quickly.

"Oh Austin, ever the pessimist, have some fun. Killing monsters, fighting Harpies. This is what we were born to do." Ahh Ellie, ever the optimist. At Least she was inspiring, I'd give her that. In the blink of an eye she crossed the distance between us and kissed me. "Still, better safe than sorry." If it hadn't been in the middle of an arena with a horde of blood hungry romans shouting obscenities at us, i might have actually enjoyed it. But in truth, it felt more like her daring me to die on her now, as if to say that if I did anything that caused me to die, she would go crawling down to the underworld, just so she could strangle me herself.

Octavian's voice made an already angry crowd angrier, his voice sounded like the most stereotypical James Bond villain. "This is all touching, but would you five please die!" He boomed from the closest side of the arena, on the opposite side of where Reyna and Jason stood glaring."

"Disregard the crowd. This is a trial by combat, Octavian's bark has no bite here." Reyna began. "The gods have allowed you to survive this first trial, while it is easy for five well trained demigods like yourselves to survive, the next two will prove much more difficult." She signaled to the next door and stood silently as it opened.

"Same plan as before" ordered Lexie raising her shield again. "This time, watch yourselves a little better."

"Got it" answered the rest of us.

Now I know that aside from Owls, snakes are Athena's other patron animal is the snake but I just don't like them. They're slimy, scaly and above all have no legs. Something without legs shouldn't be able to move as fast as they do.

Ever seen Harry Potter? Remember Voldemort's snake Nagini? Well that's what they looked like. Once the doors were open out slithered two large, green snakes. A layer of green ooze that can only be described as poison trailed behind them.

"Don't let them touch you!" Ordered Austin. "Basilisks have venomous... everything."

"Oh. Just great!" Anything else I should know?" A moment after I finished speaking, a column of flame shot from the closest snake and came within inches of catching Ellie on fire.

"Oh, he forgot to mention that" added Lexie,s "Maybe we should spread out a little."

We spread out more so that if we were attacked with fire, we wouldn't all be caught in the blast.

"So, just for reference, easiest way to kill these things?" I asked.

"Got a weasel?"

"A what?!"

"That would be a no." Lexie motioned for Austin to move to our left. At Least she had a plan. "Their poison is flammable. Catch one in the others crossfire and _BOOM!"_

"How much boom?" Aasha sounded more uneasy now.

" _BOOM."_

"Oh."

The two serpents had maneuvered between us and Ellie and Austin now.

This, at least I hoped, was part of the plan. Ellie grabbed a stone off the ground and hurled it at the basilisk closest to us. It crashed into the snake's head with devastating accuracy.

It's serpent head swiveled past it's partner and glared directly at Ellie. A thin column of flame shot directly from it's mouth in her direction. Well, good news, Lexie's plan worked. Bad news, Lexies plan worked.

The fire collided with it's also flammable friend causing it to... well, explode. A large fireball engulfed the space between us.

When the smoke cleared one basilisk was dead. One. The remaining one still glared at Ellie, it's eyes dead set on burning her to a crisp. Ellie had fallen prone on her back to avoid being burnt.

It leaned back with it's jaw wide readying a second blast. Quickly, I dropped my sword and "borrowed" Aasha's spear. Just as the flame began to flood out of the creature's mouth, I launched the spear. The head of the spear pierced the back of it's skull and jutted out of it's mouth. A moment later, it went up in a poof of golden smoke.

Ellie quickly discarded her flaming shield and cursed as she nursed her burns. She must have noticed my concern because she smiled and sprinted towards me and embraced me.

I could feel how fast her heart was beating, like a snare-drum. She didn't speak, but we both knew how close she had just come to death.

Even when Reyna spoke, Ellie didn't relax her grip on me. I didn't want her to either.

"It is an honor to see how these brave warriors fight isn't it?" Reyna bellowed to the crowd.

I hadn't noticed it before but a flock of owls had descended on the coliseum. As a side note, did anyone know that a large group of owls is called a parliament? Kind of ironic considering we had been voted to death by a senate. One stared straight at me while it perched on a stone pillar.

"Several of our own have volunteered to be our third trial," Jason continued, "among them, our resident auger!"

"I made no such statement!" Beamed Octavian from his location.

"You wanted them executed. If you want them dead that bad, it should be by your hand," A smirk grew across Jason's face, "or do you foresee that you will fail?"

"I- that is not what is going to happen, even someone without prophetic abilities can see that." Octavian twisted on his feet and marched toward a stairwell.

"While our people are preparing for battle, I wish to congratulate these five again for their valiant effort to protect their own lives, and I promise that they will have my personal protection until they are outside new Rome." Reyna began again, "had this been under different circumstances I would be proud to fight alongside each of them."

"Then let us go!" Bellowed Austin.

"It is out of our hands, the Senate voted," Jason explained, "this is your only chance to prove your innocence." He sounded sincere in his apology.

The entrance to the arena flung open, followed by seven Roman soldiers marching out. Octavian was at the back of the line and stared daggers at Jason from beneath his helmet. He was heavily armored and held a shield in one hand and a gladius in the other.

"You may begin" Reyna signalled.

Immediately they locked shields. The biggest three of them formed the front wall. Two on both sides formed the wall with Octavian at their center of their testudo. Each legionnaire beside Octavian lowered their spears between the shields.

" _Triarii_ _promoveo!"_ Ordered Octavian from beneath his shield wall. At once, all seven of them marched forward.

"Spread out again, the testudo isn't the most flexible tactic" I announced to Lexie. She nodded and we all split apart wide enough that we couldn't all be hit by the brunt of their shield wall.

Ellie and Aasha flanked off to their right, Austin to their left and Lexie and I stayed in front of them.

Ellie started harassing their flank by slashing her sword at their spear tips. She stayed just out of reach of their jabs but close enough to be a hassle should they decide to press toward anyone else. The same was with Austin. Since he wielded a dagger, he did have to resort to throwing rocks instead of his weapon, Still, it was enough to bother Octavian's formation.

"Octavian! You going to make us do this the hard way?!" Ellie Barked as she delivered another harmless jab that glanced off their weapons. Ahh Ellie, your pride is a wonder to all, who else would piss off someone who wants us dead if you weren't around?

"Shut it!" He bellowed, " _Et separatum impetum!"_ Now, I don't speak much latin, but it was kind of obvious what he meant: "Kill those annoying greeks!"

While most of them kept moving toward my sister and me, two Romans split off and moved toward Ellie and another moved toward Austin.

"Sean, we got this" whispered Lexie. I noticed she was holding a small glass ball in her hand. On it's side a label said "Caution, flammable. May cause burning and minor cases of death."

The five Romans, including Octavian, were little more than seven feet away when Lexie hurled her glass orb at the front two Romans. The ball shattered once it connected with one of their shields and exploded in a ball of green fire. Both of the front two screamed with pain as their shields burned away and scorched their limb. One of them dropped his spear and shield and drew his short sword. He held his arm close against his body and pointed his sword arm toward Lexie.

The second soldier wasn't as lucky. He _was_ able to remove his burning shield but not before the fire and heat did their damage. His tunic had been completely engulfed and burned away. He had collapsed to the ground and didn't move. Whether he was dead or not, I didn't know. But he was at the very least, unconscious, blacked out from the pain of the flames.

The Roman to Octavian's left stepped over his fallen ally and took his place in the formation. Octavian stopped moving but the other two didn't. They converged on us with sword and spear. A narrowly dodged spear told me their intentions quite well. No mercy.

A quick swing from my saber splintered the spear's shaft. At Least now, the fight would be a little more fair. Sword to sword. The man that had been burnt by Lexie's fireball unleashed an unrestrained attack on my sister. She managed to deflect his attacks but at the cost of ground. We were now pressed back against the colosseum wall.

"Any last words?" Octavian mocked as he arrogantly took a few steps forward but remained just out of reach. Neither of us gave him the satisfaction of an answer. "End this," Octavian ordered.

The pair of Legionaries pressed their attack at the same time. Lexie and I tried our best to keep up with their assault but a culmination of Lexie's previous injuries and my combat inexperience meant that we quickly were overwhelmed. One final strike knocked the saber out of my hand. I now had a sword to my neck and Lexie was locked sword to sword with the guy she had burned.

One final swing and I would be dead. I resigned to my fate and closed my eyes. I heard a metallic crash and a male scream before I was pushed to the ground.

Once I had completely gathered my senses, I pulled myself back up and noticed Ellie had positioned herself between Octavian and my sister and me. The Roman that had disarmed me was now on the ground barely defending himself from Ellie's savage blows.

"I never lose!"She bellowed between swings of her blade. "Back off! He's mine!" Now that Ellie had thoroughly frightened not only the Roman, but myself, I grabbed my saber off the ground.

It took a lot of effort on the part of the Roman soldier but he managed to stand up and deliver a few counter attacks back to Ellie. The sword fight was almost fair, Lexie and I took on one of them while Ellie held off the second.

I noticed between slashes from my opponent's sword that Octavian had disappeared. A moment later I heard a high pitched scream. I looked over to see Octavian stomping toward Aasha, sword drawn. I looked to the two Romans in front of me. "Ellie and Lexie can handle these two right?" I thought to myself. I looked over to my left and noticed Austin was having issues still fighting his opponent. I had to decide, stay and help fight with Lexie and Ellie, save Austin, or protect Aasha from Octavian's blade.

There was no way I was going to let Octavian hurt one more person. I bolted from my position next to Lexie and ran toward Octavian at full speed.

"Where are you going!?" Lexie yelled but I didn't answer.

I was too busy charging Octavian. I tackled him to the ground at full speed. His armor clattered to the ground with a heavy crash. I instantly started punching him anywhere I could, face, chest anything. Blood coated my fists as I pummeled him into the ground.

"Sean stop!" I heard Aasha scream. She grabbed me by the arms and pulled me off of him. It was only when I was off of him that I realised what was happening.

I turned to see Austin collapse to the ground. Time seemed to pause as I saw the sword stab through his chest and come out the otherside. I heard Lexie scream. There was no way she could get there in time, he was gone. Austin collapsed into a bloody heap ten feet away from us. I knew Lexie was going to do something rash. The entire goal of this mission had been to find him and bring him back safely, we had failed in that duty. I just hoped she didn't get herself hurt. I gave Octavian one last kick and pulled Aasha toward Ellie and Lexie, the least I could do is keep my sister alive.

In that time, the Roman that had killed Austin had also closed the distance and was fighting alongside his two other friends. Three fresh Roman Legionaries against four worn out greeks. Ellie and I were battered, bruised and tired. Lexie was emotionally exhausted. Her sword technique had gone from impressive, to barely better than my own at the time. It was only a matter of time before she would just start to shut down, tears were already streaming down her face and her injuries were only getting worse. Aasha would be hardly any help, she had even less experience with combat than I did, so it was mostly left to Ellie to stave off the three attacking opponents.

I still don't completely understand what happened now, but you know what? I don't care, I'm just glad it happened.

The wooden gate behind us exploded in a shower of splinters and out bolted an enormous black mastiff. The dog was the size of a freaking tank! For a moment I was afraid the thing was going to eat me, my friends, and the Romans all whole. I was half right about the Roman part. All three of them went running as the beast snapped at them with it's tree trunk sized mouth.

I don't know how Annabeth found us, again, I don't care. I'm glad she did. "Get over here now!" Ordered my oldest sibling from the top of the beast. She was dressed in a leather armor and jeans. The look on her face told me that she was pissed. "Get on the hellhound or so help me!"

Aasha and I had to help Lexie get on the dog's back, her energy was drained now, the shock of her being tortured, fighting Roman soldiers, _and_ her boyfriend being killed by before mentioned Romans proved to be too much for even my bullheaded sister. We boosted her into Annabeth's grasp and climbed on behind her while being pelted with soda cans, food and a very dull dagger among other things. At the last second, I pulled Ellie up and a moment later we were gone.

We had somehow returned to Camp Half-Blood, apparently shadow travel is a thing... I didn't know that. The sun was beginning to set.

Annabeth didn't yell, she didn't get angry. "Get. Her. To. The. Infirmary." She ordered while helping me and Ellie pull an unconscious Lexie off the dog's back. "I'll be there in a moment." She cupped her face in her hands. I don't know if she was mad, disappointed or what, but I knew to do what she told me.

Ellie led the way as we limped toward the Big House. Other campers stared as we hobled along. Once we were inside, a blonde girl about our age helped us lay Lexie into a cot and started to clean her wounds.

After a moment she asked "Did you find him? My brother, is he safe?"

"I... I'm sorry Danny, he didn't make it," apologised Ellie, "Lex did everything she coul- we all tried our best. It just wasn't enough."

She paused for a moment. A tear dripped down one of her eyes. "I'm going... to go get Will" She shook for a moment. "He's better suited for this situation." Then she took off out the door crying.

Ellie and I both sat down on a cot next to my sister and began to process everything that had happened. All the destruction that had occurred. Finding Aasha, who was now with Annabeth in the doorway, and finally Austin's death, it was just too much.

 **Sean: Well, it's coming to a close, I four year project that I'm about to finish. I would also like to say that Lexie is back to being my editor.**

 **Lexie: Yep, I couldn't just let this moron tell the story. I want to be the one to announce we are also working on a continuation. There is also one more chapter to this story.**


	21. Chapter 21

A week had passed since we fought the Romans. Annabeth and Chiron had both agreed that we had better keep the Roman's existence a secret from the rest of camp- for now at least- it would only stir panic among the campers. The incident became black booked like some government nuclear program. I went along with it only at Annabeth's request.

While this was going on, Lexie was still curled up in her bed, clutching a picture frame. Malcolm and Annabeth both tried their best to get her out of the cabin and distract her from Austin's absence, but it never amounted to much.

Eventually the time came for his funeral. We all hoped that that would help Lexie adjust. The twins, Amanda and Mathew, had already left the cabin, but the rest of us were still getting ready. Malcolm and I had just finished getting dressed when Annabeth approached Lexie on the porch.

"You ready?" she soothed as she attempted to place her arm on Lexie's shoulder. Immediately Lexie shrugged the hand off.

"Come on, would Austin really want you to be like this?" I intervened.

"You have no right to tell me what he would want! The only words you ever exchanged with him were between cell bars!"

"Lex, I'm sure Sean only meant to-"

"I don't care Annabeth. I don't care what he _meant,_ I don't care what any of you mean, it doesn't change what _is_. Let's just get this over with, my dad is going to be here in a couple of hours and I need to pack."

"You're leaving?! Camp just started!" Malcolm burst through the doorway.

"When were you planning on telling us?" Annabeth added quickly.

"Umm I dunno, when you saw me packing." Lexie said sarcastically.

"It's kinda sudden don't you think? You haven't left camp for two years and now you're going to just pack up and go now?!" Annabeth blocked Lexie from the porch stairs.

"You know what else was sudden, my boyfriend dying. Dying because _someone_ decided to save a girl we just met over the boy I had known for two years" She glared at me.

"Now isn't the time for this argument," Annabeth added while pointing to the trail leading to our cabin.

"Speak of the devil..." Lexie muttered.

Sure enough, Aasha came walking up the stone path carrying a single suitcase and her spear. Her bright, new camp shirt seemed to express slightly more cheer than was appropriate given the present circumstance.

"Hey! Needing something?" Annabeth questioned.

"Travis told me that I'm supposed to be staying here from now on."

"Did they tell you why?" I asked, dreading the answer. This was not the best timing to find out what I suspected she was going to say.

"Apparently I'm your sister... well half."

"Apparently Mom does have a sense of timing" I whispered under my breath.

It was awkwardly quiet for several seconds before Lexie spoke, "Great, an even better reason for me to leave." She grabbed her jacket off the railing and stomped away leaving Annabeth and I shocked.

I didn't see Lexie again for another six months.

 _ **Sean: Well that was definitely a drainer. Lexie and I have been working on this chapter for a month now bringing this story to a solid 4 and a half year project. Holy Hera I'm tired.**_

 _ **Lexie: Yeah me too... but we're not done yet!**_

 _ **Sean: Yeah, our lives are just getting rougher huh...**_

 _ **Lexie: We are proud to announce that we are working on a sequel! If you think these last two chapters were intense just wait. A big thanks to all our readers especially those of you who have been with us since the beginning.**_

 _ **Sean: Through all the rewrites, fixes and slight edits we would love to thank you. Foxbracken (Aasha) if you are out there, it would be great to hear from you.**_


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